POLSCI 3KK3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Genocide Convention, International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Soft Law

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 3KK3
• Professor: Trina Vella

Document Summary

What may or may not be considered genocide. Not all crimes have been recognized as an independent crime under int"l law. The un"s commission of experts defined ethnic cleansing as rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area. A more recent commission of experts added that these practices can "constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the genocide convention. War crimes are somewhat ambiguous in this way, however the are explicitly noted in int"l law -- in the geneva convention. These practices could rather constitute crimes against humanity. A lack of clarity surrounding the idea of ethnic cleansing is key, the distinction btwn it and genocide is important. Scholars differentiate them btwn the motives of the two crimes: the end of genocide is destruction, while the end of ethnic cleansing is relocation.