US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power spoke at the UN on the Commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. During her remarks, she said:

First and foremost, we gather to share in the enduring grief of our Rwandan brothers and sisters, who suffered such a searing and immeasurable loss, and who suffer that loss still every day.

But in commemorating, we must do more than mourn. We must remind ourselves that so much of the Rwandans’ suffering was preventable. Preventable by earlier recognition of the facts on the ground and a rapid, united international condemnation and action. Preventable by adding peacekeepers, rather than withdrawing them, as happened, and giving those blue helmets a more robust, clearer mandate than UNAMIR had in 1994. And preventable by more individuals in places high and low, being upstanders rather than bystanders.

As we reflect on the past, we must prevent atrocities in our present. When we remember the massacre of Tutsi on the hilltop of Gasasa, how can we not think of the Yazidis who were surrounded on Mt. Sinjar, or the victims of ISIL whose bodies are being exhumed this week from mass graves in Tikrit? How can we not think of the Palestinians trapped in Yarmouk? Indeed, the suffering Yarmouk’s 18,000 residents are enduring right now – as we gather here – makes clear that the bar for the international community to protect civilians cannot be limited to acts of genocide alone. After all, when we hear about the Kenyan university students in Garissa – pulled from their dorm rooms and executed – are we any less horrified than we are in retelling the story of Tutsi university students massacred in Butare as part of a singular crime?

As we see these parallels, we would do well to learn from our Rwandan colleagues, who honor what happened not only through memory and grief, but also through action in the present. When violence in the Central African Republic threatened to reach genocidal proportions, Rwanda sent its troops to serve as peacekeepers – a role in which they have committed themselves above all to protecting civilians.

So today, we say to Ambassador Gasana, to Miss King, and to all of our Rwandan colleagues and friends: we join you not only in mourning, but also in your seeking to build a world where other people do not have to endure what you did.

The full speech can read here or viewed here.