Global Injustice Memories: The 1994 Rwanda Genocide

Abstract

Within a relatively short span of time, and culminating with the tenth anniversary of the genocide in 2004, the 1994 Rwanda genocide has become a key global injustice memory. At the core of this process is a double-sided conception of injustice: on the one hand, the genocide in itself clearly constitutes a major injustice; on the other hand, injustice claims have been expanded to encompass actors outside of Rwanda who observed the horrors without instigating sufficient action to halt, or at least mitigate the effects of, the unfolding genocide. It is the fact that moral and political responsibility for the genocide has been so powerfully expanded to third parties in a spectatorship position that most vividly testifies to the global character of the Rwanda injustice memory. The article identifies and analyzes four areas in which the transformation of the Rwanda genocide from national event to global injustice memory has occurred: institutionalization, expressions of regret, analogical bridging, and cultural products. The article argues that the transformation of non-Western events into global injustice memories has so far been insufficiently explored within International Relations and global political sociology.