Model UN Security Council on Rwanda genocide

On the occasion of the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda, Iranian International Studies Association (IISA), Faculty of Law and Political Science of Islamic Azad University in Karaj, Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) in partnership with UNIC organized a Model UN Security Council on the question of Rwanda genocide at IPIS in Tehran on Sunday 15 May 2016, AVA Diplomatic reports.

Addressing more than 70 graduate and post graduate students of international law and relations, UN Resident Coordinator Gary Lewis, after reading the UN Secretary-General’s message, said “the long and dark story of what happened in Rwanda for those 100 days in 1994 casts a shadow on what we in the UN, and what we as human beings, failed to do. It is important that we continue to try to learn the lessons of Rwanda in order to resist the forces and pressures which caused the genocide.”

Before the start of the Model UN Sceurity Council, Director of International Legal and Political Studies Group of IPIS, Dr. Hossein Rezvani – Former Foreign Ministry Diplomat and retired Professor Dr. Hermidas Bavand – Deputy Dean of Faculty of Law and Political Science of Islamic Azad University (Karaj branch) Dr. Afshin Zargar and Senior Admin-Finance Officer of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and a national of Rwanda, Mr. Abdou-Juma Habimana delivered speeches on the Rwanda genocide.

Mr. Habimana, himself from Rwanda and who had been working as a civil servant in the Government at the time, gave a vivid and compelling account of the country’s slide into genocide from a very personal perspective.