Human Rights Dbq Analysis

Human rights—inalienable privileges bestowed upon all people that are seemingly ignored by many. Genocide tests the limits of people’s ability to respect these rights, as groups like the UN (United Nations) must act upon the atrocities. Incidences like Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, Tiananmen Square, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Nuremburg Trials demonstrated not only the utter disregard for human rights, but also how people react to these acts. Despite these blatant wrong-doings, human rights groups, such as the UN and the Amnesty International, remained unrequited with supporting the countries in need. However, some justice was brought about, for people also intensely reacted in support. Going to show that people either reacted harshly to those who
To elaborate, despite the UN’s clear outline as to what constitutes a genocide, the UN refused to provide help to the Cambodians who were being “...executed in the hundreds of thousands…” due to the fact that they were considered “intellectuals” (Doc 4). This illustrates how the UN disregarded their proclamation of what defines a genocide, and would not react against the apparent human-right violations, as well as the mass killings caused by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. Furthermore, the UN would not intervene with the Rwandan genocide, in which Hutu extremists brutally slaughtered the majority of the Tutsi population; the UN decided to “[not] reinforce the small and lightly armed UN blue helmets already in Rwanda…”(Doc 7). The withdrawal of funds and supportive equipment for the Rwandan UN soldiers goes to show that the UN refused to acknowledge the atrocious genocide that was taking place in Rwanda. It also illustrates that the United Nations acted as more of a peanut gallery by pleading ignorance than a peace group that halts genocidal