Leaders Realize The Importance To Create Institutions

Running head: THE RWANDAN CRISIS 1994
The Rwandan Crisis 1994
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The end of the Second World War in the year of 1945 made the state leaders realize the
importance to create institutions which would ensure the maintenance of peace and harmony in
the world (Mitchell 2018, 12). In this regard the United Nations Organizations came to the fore
front. However, till the beginning of the twenty first century, the various nation states in the
world, especially the under developed and the developing countries, faced a major problem with
regards to its stability and reiteration of its sovereignty. The long drawn out period of
colonization made it quite difficult on the part of such countries to form their own governments
who would be capable of governing themselves without the support and aid of the imperial
masters (Suhrke 2017, 9). However, this process was not smooth and efficient as initial thought
out to be by the concerned state leaders of the developing countries. They faced a lot of
challenges, especially those arising from the internal sphere of the nation state (Clarke 2017, 15).
This essay tries to understand the 1994 genocide that was committed in Rwanda by the Hutu
militias against the Tutsi tribal people who were their rival. In this respect, the paper tries to
analyze the important concepts of humanitarian crisis and the related idea of responsibility to
protect. The paper concludes with the importance of religion and the moral obligation of such
institutions to protect the people of the world and guarantee them a decent standard of living.
The “Ghosts of Rwanda” was a movie made to signify the tenth anniversary of one of the
most horrific events in the world, in the form of the genocide that took place in Rwanda. The
crisis in Rwanda occurred in the year of 1994 when the citizens of the country started to kill the
people of the Tutsi tribe in large numbers (Cook 2017, 21). The murders reached to the extent
that it received international condemnation and was termed as a genocidal activity. The genocide
was mainly under taken by the core members of the Hutu political class elites. Many of its
members occupied the top positions within the national government of Rwanda. It is believed

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that the genocide was planned for a year before being executed. It was this effective planning
which ensured the execution of the members of the Tutsi tribe over a long period of time without
attracting any back lash from the members of this community.
The humanitarian crisis that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 gave birth to the term “Never
Again” (White 2016, 4). It signified the prevalence of solidarity among the citizens of Rwanda to
ensure that no one member of the country would ever engage in a horrendous as a crime that
which was observed in the end of the twentieth century.
The term ‘genocide’ first appeared after the end of the Second World War (Jessee 2017,
13). The Nuremberg trials were held in order to punish all the Nazi army officers who authorized
the execution of the Jews living in Europe. Those who were found to be guilty of this massive
genocide of the Jews, were punished severely by the way of life sentences. Genocide is seen to
be one of the most serious crimes that is committed against the idea of humanity (Fisher 2015,
138). Genocide entails within itself the eradication of an entire race of people or those belonging
to a particular ethnic back ground simply because of their affiliation to that particular ethnicity.
In this regard, the various institutions of the world such as the United Nations Organizations
came up with the idea to criminalize this issue on humanitarian grounds.
However, it can be seen that in spite of the institutions of the world such as the United
Nations criminalized the idea of genocide, the nation states, state leaders of the world and the
other institutions of the globe did not take any actions with regard to the crime that occurred
(Russell 2016, 499). It needs to be noted that the criminalization of genocide is extremely
important. International condemnation by the way of an indictment issued by the United Nations
is important because it shows to the concerned country that their activities are not being received
favorably by the wider global community of people (Eltringham 2017, 11). However, it poses

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several complications since there are many criteria which needs to be met before an event can be
termed as a genocide. For instance, according to the United Nations, there needs to be killing of
the individuals before the situation can be escalated to the terminology of genocide.
In the event of the Rwanda crisis of 1994, majority of the blame was accorded to the
Hutu militias who held important positions in the government of the Rwanda during that period
of time (Banyanga, d’Amour and Björkqvist 2017, 4). They were accused of strategically
executing their plan of killing of almost all the members belonging to the Tutsi tribal community.
The international actors that were blamed for the occurrence of the Rwandan crisis was that of
the United Nations. The United Nations was established in the year 1945 to provide protection
and security to the people (Palmer 2018, 13). However, in the event of genocide in Rwanda, the
member states of the organization refused to take any initiative, believing that it was the internal
problem of the country. Furthermore, they did not have the express permission from the
government of Rwanda to interfere in their sovereign affairs. Any steps taken by the United
Nations without this permission, would have been considered as a sign of encroachment on the
part of the institution and its member countries.
During the carrying out of the mass killings, it was seen that the killers often carried a
weapon in one of their hands while a radio transistor was present in another hand (Baines 2017,
32). This posed a challenge to the international community because the media was used to spread
fear and agitation among the other citizens of the country. Furthermore, the United Nations
refused to use any radio jamming technology to prevent the misuse of such mechanisms of
media.
In order to tackle such out breaks of genocide in the world forum, the United Nations
formulated an idea known as the Right to protect. The General Assembly of the United Nations

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passed this Resolution in the World Summit that was held in 2005 (Alvarez 2016, 102). This
Resolution sought to prevent four major horrors that occur in the international sphere such as war
crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing. The Right to Protect is often
seen to be incongruent to the idea of sovereignty since it includes within itself the aspect of
invading a sovereign nation to prevent any atrocious activity from occurring against its citizens.
However, in the contemporary world, it can be noticed that no effective actions are taken
in the event that such atrocities occur against humanity. One of the most conflicted zones in the
present world is that of the Middle East. The region of Syria has been facing an ongoing
humanitarian crisis for quite a long period of time which is that of the Syrian Civil War. The
Syrian Civil War has led to the death of major number of people (Eltringham 2017, 14). The war
broke out in the year 2011, where many families were destroyed. The entire nation was torn apart
as a result of the horrors committed by the terrorist groups. The health care industry of the
country as well as the clinics were all devastated that led to the rise of humanitarian issues as the
people of the country did not have any access to the basic medical health within Syria.
This humanitarian issue as present in the context of Syria and in the other parts of the
region of Middle East, can be understood from the perspective of the bystander effect. The
bystander effect is a social and psychological aspect that is seen to be present in the context of
any social phenomenon. This effect was first advocated by Bibb Latane and John Darley in the
year of 1990 (Palmer 2018, 34). They believed that in the event that any emergency situation
occurs among a group of people who are present in that situation, it is less likely that any help or
aid would be provided by those people. They prefer to remain apathetic to the situation, instead
choosing to remain simple ‘bystanders’. This can be applied appropriately in the event of any
occurrence of genocide or other such crimes of similar nature. The public, who are not affected

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by the crimes, prefer not to take part in the process, and remain apathetic to the entire issue. This,
in turn, poses a severe threat to the maintenance of the aspect of humanity as people are not
willing to help their fellow men whose lives are at stake.
The non-state actors of the world, in the form of the Christian churches, the transnational
organization and the statesmen, are often found to advocate against the occurrence of any crimes
against humanity in the international forum. However, often times it is observed that the
churches, particularly, are extremely slow to mobilize against the issue of a protest or agitation
against any forms of genocide (White 2016, 31). This is mainly due to the presence of the close
relationship that the churches and other religious institutions share with that of the church. In the
vent of the crisis that occurred in Darfur and Syria, it can be observed that the transnational
institution such as the United Nations and other religious head, were unwilling to condemn such
attacks. This was due to the fact that the moral obligation of the need to save human lives is often
out ranked by the need to preserve the sovereignty of a state. Encroaching the sovereignty of a
state by the way of condemning one of its internal activities, is something that cannot be done by
the various non-state actors of the world, without the prior approval of the concerned state.
Thus, to conclude, it can be seen that the humanitarian crisis that occurred in Rwanda in
the year of 1994 and the Syrian Crisis that has been present since the year of 2011, have posed a
challenge and threat to the maintenance of the right to life and prosperity of the people of the
world. The internal problems in the political sphere of the state leaders are encroaching upon the
broader universal human rights that are granted to the entire human kind. The main right which
is being violated by such horrific acts of genocide and war crimes, is that of the right to live a
decent standard of living.

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