Ethnic cleansing refers to the expulsion or destruction of a population from a territory by a dominant power on grounds of ethnicity, religion, political ideology or other distinguishing characteristics. It has been a common feature of armed conflict in the twentieth century, often accompanied by sexual violence, and often with the objective of erasing all cultural, social and religious traces that identify the persecuted group (Mazowiecki Third Report I, point 12; Petrovic [Trial Judgment]).
The term is widely condemned and has at times been criticized as an euphemism for genocide, because it may prevent adequate public recognition of ongoing mass killings and prevent decisive action on the part of the international community. But even when used in this sense, the concept is not clearly defined. At one end, it seems to encompass the ‘cleansing’ of groups that are not defined by ethnicity but rather by religion or some other distinguishing characteristic; at another, it includes the ‘cleansing’ of groups in a non-armed conflict.
The precise legal definition of ethnic cleansing has been the subject of debates within the international community, in particular within the two ad hoc international tribunals created to prosecute crimes against humanity committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and in the International Criminal Court, which began its sittings in 2002. The jurisprudence of the ICTY suggests that, for the purposes of identifying acts of ethnic cleansing, it is sufficient to show that a targeted population has been displaced by an action taken with the specific intent of making the area ethnically homogenous.