Germany and UN need to implement important lessons from Rwanda genocide, say GPPi researchers

GPPi Research Associates Sarah Brockmeier and Gerrit Kurtz have each published an article in the April 2014 issue of Vereinte Nationen, calling for Germany and the United Nations to examine and act upon the lessons learned from the Rwanda genocide. In this special issue commemorating 20 years since the Rwandan genocide, Brockmeier analyzes Germany’s role during the Rwandan genocide and the need to learn from the experience, while Kurtz assesses a new United Nations action plan, called ​“Rights Up Front,” to prevent mass atrocities.

Brockmeier argues that Germany has missed an opportunity to draw lessons from its own role during the genocide. Germany was one of the biggest aid donors to Rwanda in the early 1990s and continued its support despite warning signs of the outbreak of large-scale violence. Even after the genocide started in April 1994, Germany declined to support the humanitarian effort of the UN Mission in Rwanda despite an explicit request from the UN Secretariat. It also refused to take in the conflict’s refugees.

Brockmeier points out that the United Nations and other member states such as the United States have since learned important lessons from their role during the genocide and have implemented reforms to avoid similar behavior in the future. However, she says, this is still not the case in Germany, where politicians and civil society have yet to thoroughly examine their own involvement in the genocide.

In his piece, Kurtz he comments on the new ​“Rights Up Front” action plan for the prevention of mass atrocities by the UN Secretariat. The action plan is a follow-up to the UN review of its work during the conflict in Sri Lanka and is meant to incorporate lessons learned from the UN’s failures, such as in Rwanda. Kurtz says it is a timely initiative given the crises in South Sudan and the Central African Republic but that the plan itself contains nothing new.

To improve mass atrocity prevention, Kurtz says the UN Secretariat must confront the dilemma of its own dependence on cooperating with host governments that may be involved in these atrocities. Kurtz also argues that the UN Secretary-General should speak out when states prevent the work of the UN in countries with large-scale violence.