Constructed-Response Practice Set 1

Document A: "By any of the acts mentioned in the following article, committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 Document B: "On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the Rwandan president was shot down. Within hours, organized Hutu militias began killing Tutsis throughout the country. Roadblocks were established to identify and kill Tutsis. The UN peacekeeping force, instead of being reinforced, was reduced from 2,500 to 270 troops. Major powers refused to use the word genocide because doing so would create legal obligations to act. In 100 days, approximately 800,000 people were killed." Account of the Rwandan Genocide Question 1: Based on Document A, identify two acts that constitute genocide under the Genocide Convention. Strong sample answer: "Under the Genocide Convention, killing members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group constitutes genocide when done with intent to destroy the group. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group also constitutes genocide. Other acts include deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children to another group." Question 2: Based on Document B, identify two ways the international community failed to prevent the Rwandan Genocide. Strong sample answer: "The UN peacekeeping force, instead of being reinforced when the killing began, was reduced from 2,500 to 270 troops. The major powers (especially the United States) refused to use the word genocide to describe what was happening because formal recognition would have created legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to act." Question 3: Using both documents and your knowledge of social studies, explain how the Rwandan Genocide tested the international human rights framework established after WWII. Strong sample answer: "The international human rights framework established after WWII, including the Genocide Convention quoted in Document A, was supposed to prevent the recurrence of atrocities like the Holocaust. The Convention defines genocide carefully and obligates signatory states to prevent

and punish it. Yet, as Document B shows, the framework failed catastrophically in Rwanda in 1994. The Rwandan killings clearly met the Convention's definition: organized Hutu militias killed approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus with the explicit intent to destroy the Tutsi as a group. UN General Roméo Dallaire had warned of preparations for genocide and requested authorization to act. The major powers refused. The U.S. State Department even instructed officials to avoid the word genocide precisely to avoid the legal obligation to act. The Rwandan failure exposed the gap between the formal commitments of international law and the actual willingness of states to enforce them. It also led to important reforms, including the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and eventually the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, which holds that the international community has a responsibility to act when a state fails to protect its population from genocide. Whether these reforms will prevent future genocides is being tested in current cases including the Uyghur, Rohingya, and other ongoing situations."