To what extent the UN failed to maintain peace and protect civilians during Rwanda genocide in 1994?
Aim of this project is to focus on the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and examine to what extent it was successful or not.
Main argument: What was done and what was not done by the UN- lack of humanitarian protection to the civilians and failure to provide peace in the region.
Introduction:
Brief description of Rwanda Genocide- dates, main events and people involved, main problem that occurred in the country, which led to the conflict, outline the fact that the conflict was within the nation, not with neighbouring countries.
Hutt and Tutsi where two main nationalities
Roots of the mass violence which occurred in Rwanda took place in their neighbouring country Burundi. “After nearly 30 years of Tutsi dictatorship in Burundi, the people participated in the country’s first free election in July 1993 and chose Hutu Melchior Ndadaye as their president. Ndadaye headed the Front pour la democracie au Burundi(FRODEBU), a political organization whose roots went back to the 1972 Burundian who had fled into Rwanda.”[1] This political power was based on violent and ethnic hatred, which was however, popular with Hutu. Following the conflict of interests of the governmental elite, Tutsi fanatics blindly decided to take actions and On 21 October 1993 attacked the presidential palace in Burundi
-plane crush
Hutu against Tutsi in 100 days- almost a million of victims
Link the UN military in this situation , killings of the soldiers in the first days of the genocide
Evidence of torture, rape and killings all over the country
The reason why I decided to do case study on this particular topic:
1)To outline the reason why the UN mission failed to provide peace and humanitarian protection to people in the country
2) To what extent the mission was failed
How I am going to do the research
1)Giving examples from the ICJ decisions and legislation from the UN charter to support the arguments or give counter arguments
Main Body:
1)Outline the main duties of the UN and to what extent they were breached
Structure of the peacekeeping operations- priority-protection of civilians
Also could be operations against armed groups, not in international armed conflict
What happened in Rwanda- when UN unites refused to fight- civilians were slaughtered
Art 2(4) All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Art 24
Research the doctrine of humanitarian intervention
Art 33-38
-States can ask Security Council to intervene settlement for a dispute- why this actions where blocked?
-Security council can intervene in a dispute and recommend solutions if the dispute is likely to endanger international peace and security- why events in Rwanda where underestimated?
2)The legal obligations of the UN
UN as a legal body has various legal obligations and powers. Due to this I’d like to examine several articles of the UN Charter, which are relevant to Rwanda case. One of the main legal obligations of the UN is to maintain international peace and security. In Art 24 of the UN charter it is clearly indicated that “In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United National, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of International peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council Acts on their behalf”
The use of force to protect civilians must be authorised by the security council
3) To what extent they’ve tried to implement their powers – what have they done to prevent the genocide
Belgian forces on the territory of Rwanda- on what grounds they were on the territory of the country and what laws and they’ve followed
4) Claim that the mission had limited mandate
Instead of authorising the use of force the resolution recognised the right of peacekeeping operation to use force in self-defence
– resolution 918(1194)
5)Implications – number of victims and prosecutions of those, who were in charge of the genocide
–
for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in 1994 the ICTR-International criminal tribunal for Rwanda indicated 93 individuals [2]
Bibliography: (will be formatted )
UN Charter
Convention of the prevention and Punishment of the Crime and Genocide
Convention of the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Principles of International co-operation in the detection, arrest, extradition and punishment of persons guilty of war crimes against humanity
Statue of International Tribunal for Rwanda
Resolution 918 (1994)
International Law and the Use of Force, third edition, Christine Gray,
“Reflections on Role Responsibility: The Responsibility of International Organizations for Failing to Act”, Jan Klabbers , European Journal of International Law , Volume 28, Issue4, 31 December 2017, pages 1133-1161
“The Background and Causes of the Genocide in Rwanda”,Paul J. Magnarella
Journal of International Criminal Justice, Volume 3, Issue 4, 1 September 2005, Pages 801–822
The International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience edited by David Millwood* ANNE MACKINTOSH ,OXFAM Regional Representative in Rwanda 1991-94
Outreach programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations –programme by the UN, to explore the case of Rwanda genocide
TUTOR COMMENTS :
– knowledge and understanding: the plan does not demonstrate a sound understanding of international law regarding the maintenance of international peace and security. There are some questions that you should have addressed: is there any obligation upon the UN to prevent a genocide? which are the means that the UN in general, and the SC in particular, may adopt to prevent a genocide and react against it? Which is the role of peacekeeping missions with regard to the protection of civilians? Why the peacekeeping mission deployed in Rwanda failed to protect civilians? Which were the legal issues re the peacekeepers mandate?
– sources: there are a lot of primary sources that the plan could have mentioned – what about the obligation to prevent genocide? what about the veto power under the UN Charter?
– structure: the plan should be structured as a roadmap demonstrating your understanding of the issues you have to address, in an analytical and logical way. Rather, your plan does not demonstrate a logical sequence of argumentations towards your conclusion.
– expression: please revise and polish the expression you used
[1] R. Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), at 143
