Lessons learned from Rwanda
Today in the Central African Republic, government and community leaders are struggling to help the country find the path of peace.
On Monday in Kigali, I joined the people of Rwanda in marking the 20th anniversary of the genocide, the reverberations of which are still being felt across an arc of uncertainty in Africa's Great Lakes region - and in the collective conscience of the international community.
Each situation has its own dynamics. So does the Syrian conflict, which each day claims new victims. But each has posed a complex, life-and-death challenge: what can the international community do when innocent populations are being slaughtered in large numbers and the government is unable or unwilling to protect its people - or is among the very agents of the violence? And what can we do to prevent these atrocities from occurring in the first place?