Has the world caught on the Responsibility to Protect? Revisiting the Rwandan Genocide 25 years later

Abstract

Twenty-five years after the tragic Rwandan genocide that killed around one million people in 1994, this paper revisited the tragedy by looking into the contemporary narratives on genocide studies. Through a document analysis of the existing discourses regarding the genocide, the authors found that leading scholars in international politics recognized the failure of the international community in the prevention and mitigation of the conflict following the lack of international political will by the United Nations Security Council. They have recognized that each state has the moral responsibility and obligation to protect the human rights of all of humanity. Moreover, following the trend of decreasing global democracy, scholars have also warned us that more mass atrocities may happen with the rise of authoritarian leaders in this current juncture of our history. As such, the responsibility to protect must actively prove its purpose to protect people from torture, slavery, war crimes, and genocide.