![\"or-15-jan-dallaire-fax-photo\"](\"http:\/\/rebeccadavisdance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/or-15-jan-dallaire-fax-photo.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWhat criteria are you using to determine that it is not<\/i> your responsibility to act?\u201d<\/p>\n
– Lieutenant General Romeo A. Dallaire speaking about the prevention of mass atrocities<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I had the chance to hear Canadian Senator and Lieutenant General Romeo A. Dallaire speak at The United Nations in New York.\u00a0 Anyone who has studied the 1994 genocide in Rwanda knows of LGen Dallaire: he was the Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the genocide.\u00a0 He has also authored the incredibly powerful book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda<\/i>.\u00a0 LGen Dallaire\u2019s speech was part of an UN\/Kwibuka event marking the 20th<\/sup> Anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.<\/p>\n \u201cAre Some Humans More Human Than Others?\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n LGen Dallaire told a story of when he was held up at a roadblock in Kigali by a 12 or 13 year-old boy with an AK-47.\u00a0 Here he was, the Force Commander of supposedly the most important international body to end mass atrocities, and in a breath, he could be killed by an illiterate boy carrying a weapon equal to his own body weight.\u00a0 LGen Dallaire asked us, the audience, \u201cwhat is the difference between this boy ready to kill me and my own son at home?\u00a0 Are some humans more human than others?\u00a0 Is my son more human than this child soldier?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think LGen Dallaire is challenging us to recognize (and acknowledge) the imbalance of opportunity that exists for children around the world.\u00a0 One child may kill in order to get food while another child may be served three meals a day.\u00a0 The son of LGen Dallaire and the child soldier live in conditions that cause them to act differently, not because their \u201chumanity\u201d is somehow innately different.\u00a0 During the 1994 Genocide, some children were perpetrators while others were victims.\u00a0\u00a0 There was a criterion to determine the child\u2019s fate: the ethnicity marked on an Identity Card.\u00a0 But, that marking doesn\u2019t indicate if you are human or not \u2013 entitled to life or sentenced to death.<\/p>\n Conflict Prevention vs. Conflict Resolution<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n From LGen Dallaire\u2019s extensive experience and knowledge, he has concluded that the world is too late for conflict resolution to be effective.\u00a0 In Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria, we are wrong and presumptuous to conclude that \u201cour time is now\u201d.\u00a0 Our time has long passed.\u00a0 The real political task needed in our new era of intra-state war and failing states is conflict prevention<\/i>.<\/p>\n To that end, LGen Dallaire emphasized the need for and relevancy of the UN\u2019s Peacekeeping role \u2013 especially of Chapter VII Protection (UN Charter Chapter\u00a0 VII: Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression) that allows peacekeepers to use force to protect human life.\u00a0 Another promising initiative is the \u201cCollective Code of Conduct\u201d, which would prevent the use of the veto by the P5 of the Security Council in matters involving mass atrocities.<\/p>\n At this event, Eugenie Mukeshimana gave a survivor testimony.\u00a0 She suggested the way forward is education.\u00a0 <\/i>She (and I) believes that educating youth can help to make people less susceptible to propaganda messages disseminated through mass media.\u00a0 Studying history and developing critical, independent thinkers is, perhaps, cheaper and more effective than meetings, weapons and boots on the ground.<\/p>\n The Challenge<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n So, what does that mean to \u201cme\u201d?\u00a0 I don\u2019t work at the UN nor am I a politician.\u00a0 Yet, LGen Dallaire asked me \u2013 and every one of us in that room – \u201cWhat criteria are you using to determine this is not <\/i>your responsibility?\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe it means that I need to take a moment to become more educated.\u00a0 <\/i>How many links do I click everyday?\u00a0 Maybe I could click just one more\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some Ideas\u2026Among Many<\/b><\/p>\n The Romeo Dallaire Foundation<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n International Coalition for The Responsibility to Protect (R2P)<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n United to End Genocide<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n UN: Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Confront Genocide<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n