The Rwandan genocide: a legal analysis

Autor: Mpfariseni Budeli, Beauty Vambe
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: African Identities. 8:409-424
ISSN: 1472-5851
1472-5843
DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2010.513255
Popis: The customary international law on genocide established at the 1948 Genocide Convention suggests that neighbouring countries that watch genocide take place in another state and fail to take steps to stop it can also be prosecuted for allowing the massacre of people. Although this provision was not accorded a binding force, it reveals that genocide occurs within a wider political context in which states can take action to stop it or not. When the Rwandan genocide took place in 1994 the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was the supreme African body made up of more than 50 states. However, the OAU did not mobilise its members to send troops to stop the Rwandan genocide. This raises questions about the legality of the OAU then, and the inefficacy of its legal mechanism or instrument with which the Organisation could have used to enforce its decisions. The aim of this article is to critically investigate whether or not the OAU legal mechanism was best suited to help the OAU intervene in the Rwandan genocide....
Databáze: OpenAIRE