An Elegy for Peace: The Challenges Meeting Liberal International Law in Preventing Ethnic Conflicts

Ethnic conflicts (ECs) are considered to be one of the current serious dangers for internal stability and safety as well as regional and international peace and security. Minority is a collective construction and the "group" plays a pivotal role in formation of minority groups' collective identity and the possibility of the outbreak of ECs. It appears that the Liberal International Law, due to proceeding neutrality policy and, as a consequence, paving the way for indirect discrimination against minorities from one side and radical insistence on individualism and individual demands and neglecting collective and group identity and rights on the other side, has disregarded the "group" that plays a substantial role in the outbreak and intensification of ECs. Consequently, this has led to its failure in preventing the tensions between the majority and minority or between different minority groups.