Rwanda & Bosnia: Genocide, Institutions & Accountability — Practice · Grade 10 Social Studies

Chapter: Global Challenges & Historical Inquiry

What this practice covers

By the end of Rwanda & Bosnia: Genocide, Institutions & Accountability you should be able to:

6 questions, written answer, each with a worked explanation.

Vocabulary used: context, evidence, interpretation, genocide, safe area.

Problem 1

Why is an assassination not a complete explanation of organized genocide?
Answer and explanation

Distinguish background, trigger, perpetrators, targets, and mechanisms. Categories did not make violence inevitable. Identify specific officials, militias, propaganda, and acts rather than assigning guilt or a fixed attitude to all Hutu people.

Problem 2

Why did a safe-area designation not guarantee actual safety?
Answer and explanation

Date the event and identify the responsible forces and targeted population. A safe-area designation did not establish effective protection. The crime’s documented character does not require treating denial as equally supported historical interpretation.

Problem 3

What evidence is needed to explain a failure of protection?
Answer and explanation

Compare evidence of warning, capacity, decisions, and consequences. Distinguish lack of information from refusal to act or inadequate resources. Evaluate particular responsibility without making a blanket claim that institutions can never prevent harm.

Problem 4

How does individual legal responsibility differ from collective guilt?
Answer and explanation

Identify what the finding establishes and which questions remain outside it. Accountability, acknowledgment, repair, prevention, and social recovery are different outcomes. A conviction does not itself restore every victim’s loss or end all community disagreement.

Problem 5

Teaching scenario: an institution calls a place safe, but its protection force lacks resources and cannot prevent an armed takeover. Explain the distinction and identify evidence needed to evaluate responsibility.
Answer and explanation

A designation establishes an institutional claim, while effective protection requires capacity and decisions. Responsibility needs evidence about warnings, authority, available resources, orders, and actions. The scenario illustrates a mechanism without establishing every historical official’s knowledge or choices.

Identify the promise or designation.

Assess mandate, resources, and command decisions.

Compare warnings and actual actions.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
  • Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.

Problem 6

If a tribunal convicts a commander, does that prove every member of the commander’s nationality committed the crime?
Answer and explanation

No. A finding concerns specified conduct and responsibility under evidence and procedure. National identity does not establish individual guilt, and broader historical claims require their own records.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
  • Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.

Browse all courses