Rwanda Genocide

Rwanda Genocide

        April 6, 1994 was the start of a horrible genocide to get rid of those that the leadership in Rwanda were worried about overthrowing them. The article I read, Reflecting on Rwanda, Ban urges courage ‘to counter the cruelty taking place before out eyes’, talked about the 21st anniversary of the Rwanda genocide and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The genocide killed over 800,000 people that consisted of the “rebels and people who defended them, saying that they were not going to kill the innocent” (Reflecting on Rwanda par 2). In Rwanda, the elite felt that their power was in jeopardy and they wanted to keep power, because of this they caused fear and caused hatred towards the minority, the Tutsi’s. The article goes on to talk about the separation of countries and even countries today face security dangers (Reflecting on Rwanda par 3). The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was put in place help stop and prevent things, like the Rwanda Genocide, from happening to keep peace in countries. Learning lessons from a tragic event, the United Nations sees what occurred in Rwanda has a failure, the “consequences of indifference or failing to act in cases of suspected mass atrocities” and ensuring nothing, similar to what happened in Rwanda, happens again (Reflecting on Rwanda par 13). It has been 21 years since the genocide, and the United Nations is still trying to improve their preventative measures to foil plans for horrible things, like genocide, from occurring.  

        In this article, the third article in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights it says that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” (Fisk, Mayfield and Wallace pg 441). The news article Reflecting on Rwanda, Ban urges courage ‘to counter the cruelty taking place before our eyes’ is talking about the violation of this article. Extremists in Rwanda became threatened and decided that there must be something done about it. Getting rid of the problem was the best idea they came up with, and anyone who did not agree with their beliefs was killed too. The world watched as this happened in Rwanda and did not do much about it until the devastation was too vast. In article three it says that “Everyone has the right to life”, but these rights were violated when the extremists in Rwanda thought differently and decided to kill anyone they felt was a threat to their beliefs (Fisk, Mayfield and Wallace). They took the ability and right of those who died in Rwanda, ignoring not only the third article of human rights, but a few others as well.

        The United Nations has tried for 70 years to keep human rights equal and giving a standard, for both people and nations to follow (Fisk, Mayfield and Wallace pg 439). Through good and bad the United Nations has learned what they need to improve to ensure the safety and equality of the people. These human rights that were created are broken every day in multiple countries across the world. More of guidelines and recommendations, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights exists to keep things like the Rwanda genocide from happening. It is wild to think through the 70 years of existence of the United Nations both good and bad thing have happened across the world. Human rights have been violated and ignored in some parts of the world, but in others it has become stronger and more equal. The world and United Nation learned a lot after the Rwanda genocide: putting a stop to things before they start is never a bad thing, everyone is at risk of human rights being violated and horrible things make people tougher. Life is not a walk in the park and we have to face what is in front of us to prevent the bad and become stronger through it.