Address by Ms. Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 15th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda

7 April 2009
Geneva


Ambassador Sebudandi,
Director General Ordzhonikidze,
Distinguished Speakers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am profoundly moved by this commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. What I learned as a former judge and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda about the way in which a society can be shattered, and the way in which one human being can abuse another, will haunt me forever.

I join the previous speakers in mourning the victims of the genocide: the women, the men, the children, who were killed in a frenzy of hatred.

This is also an opportunity to pay homage to the witnesses who came forward with harrowing accounts of atrocities. These individuals refused to remain silent and tacitly tolerant about violations of human rights. Their testimony helped to dismantle barriers to dialogue and to mend and restore the very foundations of peaceful coexistence, for it is the establishment of truth that fosters reconciliation.

In expressing their grief and horror, survivors in Rwanda did not choose the barren path of wanton revenge, but that of justice and thereby cleared the way for communal rebuilding. They sought the help of the international community to bolster their efforts. These are the heroes whose courage gives life to the rule of law as a standard of human conduct in the world.

I salute the many human rights defenders, legal professionals, scholars, journalists, and humanitarian workers who painstakingly documented the genocide so that future generations too could learn from the immense tragedy of Rwanda. Alison des Forges was one of these courageous activists and scholars. She died two months ago in a plane crash. Today, I wish to commemorate her tireless work and exemplary life devoted to the victims of human rights abuses.

All these individuals are the brave human beings whose action, writing, testimonies and lives will remain in our collective memory. As Edward Burke noted: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” These men and women made justice possible.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Indeed, it took abuses on an immense scale which unfolded in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to breathe new life into the legal precedent established by the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. These tribunals represented the law’s first efforts to submit mass atrocity to principled judgement. However, their lessons and precedent were left dormant until the end of the 20th century. In the meantime, the international community largely and shamefully tolerated more than fifty years of impunity in which millions of civilians were killed while their murderers went unpunished.

In December 2008, we celebrated the twin 60th anniversaries of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. We need now to build on the experience accumulated over many years in the realm of international justice in order to avert genocide.

To be sure, a key measure for the prevention of genocide is to end impunity for genocidal acts. In particular, those in position of leadership, those who are most responsible for genocide, must be made accountable. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda successfully prosecuted political and military heads: the Prime Minister of the interim government was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Tribunal delivered judgements against ministers of government, prefects and military leaders. Crucially, it established that rape may constitute genocide if committed with intent to destroy a particular group.

The Tribunal was not a “victor’s court”. It was an important part of an innovative and desperately needed ray of hope for an international rule-based system against the brutality of lawlessness and the extermination designs of supremacist murderers. That tribunal and other international courts have given us tools of accountability that we did not have before. The International Criminal Court, established in 1998, is one of these innovative mechanisms. All States should ratify its statute and support its work. We must now be creative and thoughtful about how we can use those tools and mechanisms to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide rather than prosecute these heinous deeds after the fact.
I wish to underscore, however, that international tribunals are and should be regarded as mechanisms of last resort. The first recourse must be at the national level. States should put in place appropriate legal and judicial systems to prosecute genocide crimes. International justice must be activated only when national systems are unable or unwilling to prosecute genocide. In this regard, I also emphasize the importance of universal jurisdiction over crimes of genocide.
Excellencies,
Genocide prevention should start with a focus on the primary causes of mass atrocities, namely the systematic de-humanization of communities that leads to discrimination and violence. Genocide is the ultimate form of discrimination and racial hatred. History has proved time and again that, when allowed to take root, discrimination, racial strife and intolerance shatter the very foundations of societies and damage them for generations. I know this through my personal experience of growing up and living in apartheid South Africa. And I know first hand the destructive force of pitting against each other communities that share the same homeland.

There is no doubt that racial discrimination is one of the most widely occurring human rights violations and may even be intensifying as a result of resurgent prejudices and fear, as well as competition over scarce resources and employment opportunities. It is frequently inherent in the asymmetry of power relations within a society. It exploits and perverts the human desire to belong, the legitimate aspirations to a cultural, historical and psychological space that preserves and nurtures one’s identity.

Even though guarantees of non-discrimination are enshrined in every international human rights standard, laws in some countries, and practice in many, in all regions of the world, still permit or tolerate discrimination. By the same token, our cumulative knowledge of the pernicious effects of intolerance, oppression and subjugation, which we acquired through centuries and across continents, has yet to stamp out racial hatred.

We need to learn to respect others and foster tolerance. We have to break the cycles of violence, the mobilization of fear, and the political exploitation of ethnic, racial and religious differences.

Allow me to underscore once again that prohibited grounds of discrimination are listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as several human rights treaties. These encompass discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. In other words, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are much wider than those envisaged by the genocide convention. As we seek to prevent genocide and root out its causes, such broader definition must represent our point of departure.

Let me also note that the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document includes a section entitled, “Responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” Under this heading, Member States recognized that “Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” (paragraph 138). Member States further recognized that the international community, through the United Nations, also has a responsibility to assist States to meet their protection obligations and to respond in cases of manifest failure (paragraph 139). Both paragraphs emphasize early warning, prevention and support from the international community in helping States build the capacity to protect. To that end, the Secretary-General also appointed Francis Deng as his special advisor on the prevention of genocide.

Crucially, dialogue amongst Member States must continue in the context of the UN Human Rights Council regarding concrete measures to enhance protection and avert genocide. This dialogue should address the concerns identified by the independent experts of treaty bodies and Special Procedures who monitor States’ human rights obligations and identify patterns of massive, serious and systematic violation of human rights. These experts can issue an early warning regarding human rights violations which carry the potential of leading to genocide. That was indeed the case when the former Special Rapporteur on summary and arbitrary executions foresaw mass killings in Rwanda before the genocide actually occurred.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I cannot overemphasize the need to attack genocide at its root-causes which often stem not so much from identity differences, but from structures and policies of marginalization, exclusion, and discrimination, as well as a denial of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.

In our era of deepening interaction and mutual learning among people of different origins, and in a context of heightened political awareness and civic activism around the world, common strategies are most effectively pursued when anchored in the protection and promotion of universal human rights without discrimination of any kind. The Durban Review Conference that will take place on April 20-24 in Geneva represents a crucial opportunity for the international community to assess the implementation of the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the most comprehensive international platform to fight racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. I exhort all States and all concerned stakeholders to actively participate in this important conference.

Let me conclude by recalling an incident that occurred in north-western Rwanda when Hutu gunmen attacked a school and ordered students to separate into groups of ethnic Hutu or Tutsi. The students refused to identify their ethnicity in order not to betray their schoolmates. Seventeen brave girls were killed as a result of their courageous stand.

And now I ask: How can we be worthy of these children? I believe that we must all work together to achieve an environment of respect for equality, justice and non-discrimination. This environment--supported and bolstered with effective institutions of governance--can help to prevent genocide and ultimately vindicate the victims of the Rwandan tragedy and of all those mass atrocities that scar the conscience of humanity.

Thank you.