Justice and Diplomacy Resolving Contradictions in Diplomatic Practice and International Humanitarian Law
2 - Legal Expertise
Implications of Legal Terminology in Diplomatic Processes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2018
Summary
This chapter examines the debate over the use of the term “genocide” during the crisis in Rwanda in April 1994. It attempts to clarify how the difficulty in determining whether the situation in Rwanda constituted genocide, in the legal sense, coupled with the uncertainty about the legal implications of using the term “genocide” contributed to the flailing international response to the humanitarian crisis. While the case study does not argue that the uncertainty over legal grounds for, and implications of, the use of the term “genocide” was the key factor that delayed action during the Rwandan crisis, it offers an opportunity to examine the importance and impact of legal terminology on diplomatic deliberations, and explores the obstacles created by confusion about specific legal terms and concepts. What were the tactical and strategic considerations behind the positions of key Security Council members in the case of UNSC Resolutions 912, 918 and 925 in employing specific legal terminology? Why did the United States, for example, caution its diplomats not to use the word “genocide”? What are practical tactics and strategies for using or avoiding these terms in diplomatic contexts?
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- Justice and DiplomacyResolving Contradictions in Diplomatic Practice and International Humanitarian Law, pp. 20 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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Melvern, L., “The Security Council in the Face of Genocide” (2005) 3 Journal of International Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 847–860.Google Scholar
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Hagan, J., Justice in the Balkans: Prosecuting War Crimes in the Hague Tribunal (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).Google Scholar
Hagan, J. and Rymond-Richmond, W., Darfur and the Crime of Genocide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Jones, B. D., Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failure (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001).Google Scholar
Krasner, S. D., Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Luttwak, E. N., Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001).Google Scholar
Mills, K., “Rwanda: The Failure of ‘Never Again” in International Responses to Mass Atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to Protect, Prosecute, and Palliate (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Melvern, L., A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide (Zen Books, 2009).Google Scholar
Mody, B., The Geopolitics of Representation in Foreign News: Explaining Darfur (Lexington Books, 2010).Google Scholar
Peskin, V., International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).Google Scholar
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Sikkink, K., The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).Google Scholar
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Chaon, A., “Who Failed in Rwanda: Journalists or the Media?” in Thompson, A. (ed.), The Media and the Rwanda Genocide (London: Pluto Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Dobbs, M. (ed.), “Inside the UN Security Council: April–July 1994,” National Security Archive, June 2, 2014, available at: www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB472/.Google Scholar
Drezner, D. W., “Bargaining, Enforcement, and Multilateral Sanctions: When is Cooperation Counterproductive?” (2000) 54 International Organization, 1, pp.73–102.Google Scholar
Gattini, A., “Breach of the Obligation to Prevent and Reparation Thereof in the ICJ’s Genocide Judgment” (2007) 18 European Journal of International Law, 4, pp.695–713.Google Scholar
Hintjens, H. M., “When Identity Becomes a Knife: Reflecting on the Genocide in Rwanda” (2001) 1 Ethnicities, 1, pp. 25–55.Google Scholar
Hurd, I., “Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics” (1999) 53 International Organization, 2, pp. 379–408.Google Scholar
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Kaempfer, W. H. and Lowenberg, A. D., “Unilateral Versus Multilateral International Sanctions: A Public Choice Perspective” (1999) 43 International Studies Quarterly, 1, pp. 37–58.Google Scholar
Kapila, M., as quoted in “Mass rape atrocity in west Sudan,” BBC News, March 19, 2004.Google Scholar
Kuperman, A., “How Media Missed Rwandan Genocide,” in Thompson, A. (ed.), The Media and the Rwanda Genocide (London: Pluto Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Kurth, J., “Humanitarian Intervention after Iraq: Legal Ideals vs. Military Realities” (2007) 50 Orbis, 1, pp. 87–101.Google Scholar
Lamp, N., “Conceptions of War and Paradigms of Compliance: The ‘New War’ Challenge to International Humanitarian Law” (2011) 16 Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 2, pp. 225–262.Google Scholar
Martin, L. L., “Credibility, Costs, and Institutions: Cooperation on Economic Sanctions” (1993) 45 World Politics, 3, pp. 406–432.Google Scholar
Meernik, J., “Justice and Peace? How the International Criminal Tribunal Affects Societal Peace in Bosnia” (2005) 42 Journal of Peace Research, 3, pp. 271–289.Google Scholar
Melvern, L., “The Security Council in the Face of Genocide” (2005) 3 Journal of International Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 847–860.Google Scholar
Orentlicher, D., “Criminalizing Hate Speech in the Crucible of Trial: Prosecutor v. Nahimana” (2006) 21 American University International Law Review, 557, pp.557–597.Google Scholar
Schabas, W. A., “Introductory Note to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” December 9, 1948, available at: http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html.Google Scholar
Schimmel, N., “An invisible Genocide: How the Western Media Failed to Report the 1994 Rwandan Genocide of the Tutsi and Why” (2011) 15 The International Journal of Human Rights, 7, pp. 1125–1135.Google Scholar
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Stanton, G., “Could the Rwandan Genocide have Been Prevented?” (2004) 6 Journal of Genocide Research, 2, pp. 211–228.Google Scholar
Thompson, A., “Coercion Through IOs: The Security Council and the Logic of Information Transmission” (2006) 60 International Organization, 1, pp. 1–34.Google Scholar