Photographs of Genocide Victims at the Genocide Memorial Centre, Kigali, Rwanda. Globally, teaching about genocide, human rights, and diversity inoculates youth against extremist ideologies, says the writer.
Image: Picture: Wikimedia Commons
Rwanda now marks 31 years since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. For many, 7 April is just another day. For Rwandans, it is sacred — a moment to remember more than one million lives erased in 100 days, and to recommit ourselves to the fragile, urgent work of peace, justice, and historical honesty.
At the Kwibuka 31 commemoration in Pretoria, I addressed diplomats, survivors, youth, members of our community, and friends of Rwanda with a message not of despair but of defiant hope. The genocide’s legacy is not solely one of suffering; it is also one of resilience, renewal, accountability, and the power of memory transformed into action.
Each 7 April, Rwanda’s flame of remembrance burns for 100 days — one for every day of horror in 1994, when genocidaires slaughtered more than one million Tutsi in the fastest genocide of the twentieth century. As we remember the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, we must ask ourselves: What does remembrance demand of us? Memory is not passive; it is a call and a responsibility.
As one survivor reminds us, commemoration means “acknowledging the dark past of our history but also affirming our commitment to light.” This 31st commemoration, like those before it, challenges every individual, institution, and nation to turn remembrance into concrete steps that ensure “Never Again” is more than an empty slogan.
Five moral imperatives emerge from Rwanda’s tragedy — principles that can help prevent such atrocities anywhere in the world.
1. Memory as Moral Duty and Bulwark Against Atrocity Remembering genocide is a duty owed to victims and survivors, and it serves as a bulwark against denial and indifference.
Collective memory keeps the truth alive. Sites such as the Kigali Genocide Memorial stand as sacred repositories of truth, where survivors’ testimonies and victims’ remains tell the real story of 1994. In creating and protecting memorials, we declare that the perpetrators failed. Collective memory is not merely history; it is vigilance.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay affirmed on 7 April 2025 that we must tirelessly transmit the history of the genocide, out of duty to the victims and to ensure such atrocities never happen again.
Remembering arms us against those who would distort the facts and alerts us to the first sparks of hate and incitement before they escalate.
2. Speaking Truth to Atrocity
Genocide is always preceded by a lethal ideology: dehumanising propaganda, denial of past crimes, and the rewriting of history. In Rwanda, extremist media and classrooms were weaponised to turn ordinary citizens into killers. Preventing atrocity, therefore, begins with truth-telling. Whistle-blowers, journalists, human-rights defenders, and community leaders must expose hate rhetoric and abuses at the earliest stage.
After every genocide comes the voices of denial.
Confronting revisionism is an ethical imperative because, without truth, there can be neither reconciliation nor prevention. Rwanda’s post-genocide journey underscores this: genocide denial is criminalised, and public education about 1994 remains a national priority. Euphemisms such as “ethnic cleansing” only abet killers; calling crimes by their name is the first step toward timely action.
H.E. Emmanuel Hategeka, High Commissioner of Rwanda to South Africa
Image: H.E. Emmanuel Hategeka
3. Justice and Accountability —
Making “Never Again” Real Memory gains its full meaning only when it propels justice. After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the community-based Gacaca courts held many perpetrators to account.
Justice cannot restore the dead, but it honours them by affirming that such crimes will not be tolerated. Even three decades on, justice is unfinished business. Some suspects still live openly in foreign countries. Extradition or prosecution is a collective responsibility. Relentless pursuit of genocidaires deters future crimes; impunity invites them. Justice also establishes an accurate historical record and offers survivors a measure of closure.
4. Education — Building a Future Free of Hate
If hatred can be taught, so can empathy. In a nation where nearly 70 per cent of citizens were born after 1994, genocide education is crucial. Memorial sites double as classrooms; curricula and digital archives preserve survivors’ “living memory” for new generations. Globally, teaching about genocide, human rights, and diversity inoculates youth against extremist ideologies. Training people to detect and reject hate speech is ever more urgent in the internet age. The same tools once twisted for evil can be turned into channels of tolerance. Planting empathy and critical thinking in young minds is planting the seeds of “Never Again.”
5. From Remembrance to Responsibility.
Ultimately, memory must move us to act. The 1994 genocide is a cautionary tale of international failure: clear warnings were ignored. In response, the United Nations adopted the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005, pledging that the world would no longer remain indifferent when populations face mass atrocities.
Yet political will remains uneven. UN Special Adviser Adama Dieng has warned that “Never Again” too often becomes “time and again.” Genocide anywhere diminishes humanity everywhere. International institutions must overcome inertia and rivalries to protect those at risk. Vigilance, Not Tears Alone Thirty-one years after those dark 100 days, the world owes the victims more than mourning; we owe them vigilance.
Our shared memory of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi must drive us to prevent genocide wherever it threatens.
The cost of inaction is measured in mass graves; the promise of action, in lives saved and futures secured. May the flames of remembrance light our path to peace, and may humanity finally live up to its responsibility to act.
H.E. Emmanuel Hategeka, High Commissioner of Rwanda to South Africa