WATCH: Romeo Dallaire: Canada needs to act on 'genocide' in China rather cater to 'self-interests'

Humanitarian and retired senator and Canadian Forces Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire appeared on Power & Politics on Wednesday, urging Canadian leaders to act on "genocide" in China.

"When there is massive abuses of human rights by a state... we all have the responsibility to go in and protect them. We signed up to it. The world signed up to it," Dallaire said.

Dallaire, who has had personal experience with witnessing genocide during his UN Peacekeeping Mission to Rwanda in the early 90s, said that it was self-interest that is stopping Canada from calling out China on the genocide of their Uyghur population.

"It is with great chagrin that I say yes, the [familiarity] between what I saw pre-genocide in Rwanda and the things I've seen in the past nearly two years going on in China are so blatant... we've had enough of the international tribunal to tell us [that this is a genocide,] and yet self-interests, and a lack of wanting to take the risk of holding accountable great nations who do horrible things is still prevalent."

Dallaire said it was up to Canada to form coalitions with other world powers to call out China on the genocide.

Recently, an independent report by human rights and international law and genocide studies found that China violated every act within the UN's United Nations Genocide Convention.

"We believe the conclusions are clear and convincing," wrote the New Lines Institute.

The 55-page document "concludes that the People’s Republic of China (China) bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) based on an extensive review of the available evidence and application of international law to the evidence of the facts on the ground."