The concept of cultural genocide: An international law perspective

Abstract

Actions taken with the aim of destroying the culture of any people or ethnic group are referred to as cultural genocide. Although not a distinct crime under international law and not included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the international community has elevated the legal status of cultural genocide to its current role as evidence of a specific intent to commit genocide. This paper with a qualitative descriptive scope aimed to analyze the need for further development of the conceptual provisions related to the problem of cultural genocide, which found only partial qualifications in the 1948 Genocide Convention. The results showed that there is no single, universally accepted definition of this term. It was conclu-ded that the problem of cultural genocide has not only not lost its relevance, on the contrary, in recent years it has become even more significant.