The Canadian Response To The Rwandan Genocide

“The Rwandan Genocide represents one of the worst human security failures, and the consequences still reverberate through the Great Lakes region of Africa nearly ten years later”, writes the Commission on Human Security in 2003. “Therefore, realizing human rights lies at the core of protecting and empowering people” (Bodelier, 2011). Canada's lack of response to the Rwandan Genocide was unfortunate, and it allowed for questioning of Canada's continued strength in peacekeeping operations, something Canada had been instrumental in creating merely 40 years prior. It is necessary to examine Canada's role within the international community's failure, to understand what external factors can still influence Canada's foreign policy, and to therefore

The Rwandan Genocide was a clear demonstration of other nations and international institutions influencing Canada’s decisions within the international realm. This paper will analyze the Canadian response to the Rwandan Genocide, in order to understand how the nation of Canada attempted to regain its internationalist status, specifically looking at the adoption of a renewed human centred foreign policy. The specific additions being: Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Axworthy’s Human Security Network, and an increase in Canadian influence within international institutions, such as playing an influential role on the United Nations Security Council, and in the creation of the International Criminal Court. The majority of the research

Canada’s foreign policy at the time with regards to Rwanda must be analyzed through a realist lens, as Canada’s lack of support was brought about out of self interest. Realists consider states to be the main actors within the anarchic international system. These states are concerned with their own security, only pursue their own national interests, and are in a constant battle for power. In focusing on power and self interests realists are skeptic of ethical norms and ethical relations (Soomo Publishing, 2011). This realist reaction to the Rwandan genocide can be seen throughout the entire genocide. For example, Canada, as well as the rest of the international community ignored Romeo Dallaire and his frequent attempts to warn nations about the impeding violence, through means such as the Genocide Fax, which was sent in January 1994, over four months before the genocide officially began (Kuperman, 2001). David Kilgour, a Canadian member of parliament echoed this opinion in noting that Canadian troops were not released from other missions to join the existing peacekeeping force until the largest amount of deaths had already occurred. He goes as far as questioning