Another serious complication with the prevention of human rights abuses on the large scale is that they are almost always perpetrated with the complicity of large numbers of those who may not participate directly but whose inaction and indirect contribution are morally offensive but that, arguably, do not rise to the level of culpability and direct action or responsibility to justify the same retributive justice after the fact (Fletcher & Weinstein 2002; 579). Typically, that would include masses of cheering supporters for corrupt and abusive regimes (such as was witnessed on the widest and most heinous scale in recorded human history in Nazi Germany) who merely stood by, vocally or tacitly supported human rights abuses, or who actively profited from the misfortunes of the victims without actually causing it (Fletcher & Weinstein 2002; 579).
That is why if human rights are to be effectively enforced, especially on an international or global scale, it likely cannot be achieved exclusively through concepts of retributive justice...
To genuinely eliminate human rights atrocities, international efforts must include educational approaches and the effective modeling of just societies to mitigate the worst natural instincts of members of the populations whose tacit support and condoning of human rights atrocities are a necessary part of prevention. Certainly, leaders, perpetrators, and architects of human rights abuses are appropriately punished (and held out as examples to the world); however, genuinely eliminating human rights abuses likely requires a more comprehensive approach that also incorporates social education of populations more generally.
References
Fletcher, Laurel E. And Weinstein, Harvey M. "Violence and Social Repair: Rethinking
the Contribution of Justice to Reconciliation." Human Rights Quarterly, Volume
24, Number 3, (August 2002): 573 -- 639.
Mose, Erik. "Main Achievements of the ICTR." Journal of International…
