Remembering Rwanda: Carter Center Statement on Tenth Anniversary of Genocide

The Carter Center joins the world community in commemorating the loss of life from the genocide in Rwanda that began on April 7, 1994. Designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda, April 7, 2004, marks 10 years since more than 800,000 people died in that ethnic conflict. The violence spread to Burundi the following year, and the consequences are still reverberating in ongoing regional chaos. More than 3 million people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and more continue to perish daily because of fighting, starvation, and disease.

The Carter Center has worked since 1993 to increase the United Nations’ capacity to document, report on, and respond to emerging patterns of human rights violations before they reach cataclysmic proportions. Human rights activists around the world are an integral part of an early warning system.

They must be allowed to work freely, and they must be heard to alert policymakers to impending crises. Then, the world’s political leaders must act upon this information, preventing abuses from escalating and deterring future ones. By addressing instability at an early stage and honoring individual human rights, we can create a secure and free world for us all.