By: Augie Alvarado
During the Rwandan Genocide, international humanitarian law failed to protect the human rights of those who were targeted and lost their lives. While there were hopes of another nation stepping in to stop the atrocities from continuing to unfold, the intervention would never be as successful as it could’ve been. First off, the conflict was much too deep seeded to just stop. All countries have their own internal conflicts, and many conflicts are much too complex to just vanish one day. The crashing of the Rwandan President’s plane launched a full-scale attack on the minority Tutsis who had been targeted by the already established caste system in the country. Even though there was much evidence that the attacks on Tutsis were planned, the United Nations ignored any cries for help from Rwandans. The United States was among the nations who refused to aid the suffering Tutsis after recently coming out of Somalia where attacks on U.S. troops rocked the world. It is assumed that after witnessing what occurred in Somalia, many nations denied assistance to innocent people. The United Nations should have intervened in the situation in Rwanda, and it is unfortunate that the organization that dictates what human rights are allowed a country to violate those rights.
Human rights in Ethiopia are defined as rights of everyone regarding certain freedoms and privileges of living beings. There are also antidiscrimination laws in place to make sure that all the different groups are represented and protected equally. Humanitarian law or international humanitarian law are different from human rights as they are the rules of war. It is hard to say whether Ethiopia has any laws in place that align with humanitarian law. Currently, there is a civil war between the people of Tigray and the government of Ethiopia. There have been attacks on the Tigray region by the government and it has been seen that the government has failed to aid innocent bystanders in the Tigray region. It can be debated whether or not the country is following humanitarian law and it will be interesting to see what unfolds there.