By Matthew C. Walsh
At Albany Law, Matt has served on the Executive Board of the Rugby Club and as an intern in the Family Violence and Litigation Clinic for the Justice Center at the law school. He currently works at a personal injury firm in Albany and, upon graduation, he will be moving to Syracuse to work at a medical malpractice defense firm.
In his free time, Matt enjoys playing sports, being on water, and spending time with family and friends.
This paper was prepared for Professor Alexandra Harrington's International Human Rights Law class.
The Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany through the 1930s and World War II is unfortunately only one example of many instances of ethnic cleansing throughout the world. While the United Nations has facilitated treaties prohibiting similar acts, that is not enough. All member states of the United Nations have the duty and obligation to preserve the life of all people and protect them from international human rights crimes. Despite this, there is still no international treaty or law that specifically bans ethnic cleansing.
Without such a treaty providing a definition, what exactly is ethnic cleansing, and what kinds of acts would fall under this category? Should there be a specific ethnic cleansing law in place? Are other international statutes and treaties already in place sufficient to provide the necessary protections? This paper analyzes these important questions and explains why an ethnic cleansing statute should be added to and recognized under international law.
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To read the paper, open HERE.
