.
It is due to this lack of meaningful military assistance that the UN proved to be largely ineffective in their response to the Rwandan Genocide, however they must receive some credit for the humanitarian efforts that they deployed. .
Furthermore, countries such as the United States, Belgium, France, Canada and China were called to send troops to and assist the situation in Rwanda at the time. Troops were sent by countries such as Canada and Belgium, however were soon withdrawn due to political pressure and the deaths of small numbers of soldiers. Ultimately, the presence of the Western troops proved ineffective, as they were unable to act appropriately due to their orders to act purely in self-defense. It is clear that the nation-state's failures to realize the significance of the hundreds of thousands of Rwandan deaths in comparison to their own few causalities, disallowed an effective aid mission by leading to a withdrawal of troops. .
The non-legal responses by NGO's and the media during the Rwandan genocide assisted the situation, however did not prove to be enough to make the overall response truly effective. Ngo's such as the Red Cross had a helpful humanitarian presence in Rwanda during 1994, assisting with aid, health care, sanitation and the overall upholding of the basic human rights. In addition to NGO's, the media played an important role in spreading awareness of the violence and atrocities of the genocide around the world. A great deal of footage, photographs, articles and news reports allowed the global community to witness aspects of the genocide, and spread awareness of the genocide. This assisted in the search for funding and also influenced a large amount of pressure to be put onto the UN and other organizations to provide assistance. This non-legal response was helpful for the situation in Rwanda, but was not extremely effective due to the fact that the casualty rates were so high and humanitarian issues prevailed.
