In April 1994, a terrible event took place, in which approximately one million people were brutally murdered because of their ethnicity or opposition to the regime. (Uvin, 2003). This terrible event occurred in Rwanda and is known as the Rwandan Genocide. Genocide can be described as a unilateral massacre in which the state or other authority intends to destroy a group, to the extent that that group and its membership are identified by the perpetrator. (Hintjens, 1999) This is exactly what happened in Rwanda in 1994. In Rwanda, the population was predominantly Hutu (84%) and had two minorities, Tutsi (15%) and Twa (1%). (Hoex, 2010) The perpetrators of the genocide were the Hutu majority and the victims were the Tutsi. To explain this atrocity, you can use the cultural, institutional and constructive approach. The cultural approach means that the conflict took place because of something that is given at birth and which separates the actors and the victims. In contrast, institutional means that the government has institutionalized the differences between the two groups. Finally, the constructive approach can be defined as when the differences between people have been constructed and not given. The conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu was not a new concept in Rwanda when the genocide took place; it had been happening slowly for decades. The Hutu resented the Tutsis because the Belgian settlers favored them and considered them superior to the Hutu. When the Hutu gained power after the Revolution, they imposed employment restrictions and quotas on the Tutsi. The closer we got to the genocide, the more the Hutus openly demonstrated their desire to completely rid Rwanda of the “cockroaches” (the Tutsi). It was displayed in the middle of paper ......dence because it was so ingrained in society. Then, once these roles were accepted, they were institutionalized to deprive the Tutsi of their rights. After being deprived of their rights, they became victims, which led to the genocide itself. References Hintjens, HM Explaining the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 37, 241-286. Accessed April 23, 2014 from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=17710&jid=MOA&volumeId=37&issueId=02&aid=17709Hoex, L. Study of the microdynamics of the Rwandan genocide. British Journal of Criminology, 435-454. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/3/435.full#content-block Uvin, P. Reading The Rwandan Genocide. Review of International Studies, 3, 75-99. Accessed April 23, 2014 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1521-9488.00245/pdf