The symposium commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, which took an estimated 800,000 lives in 100 days beginning in April 1994. It brought together some leading Rwandan survivors of the genocide and experts on the origins, course, and consequences of that catastrophe.
PROGRAM
A full program with a summary of each presentation and biographical details of each speaker is available here. The Symposium poster is available here.
8:45 Registration and Welcoming Remarks
9:00 - 10:50 Justice for the Perpetrators
The Record of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Its Legacy
Francois-Xavier Nsanzuwera, Esq., Appeal Counsel, Prosecutor’s Office, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Arusha, Tanzania
Assessing Rwanda’s Experiment in Mass Justice
Lars Waldorf, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Applied Human Rights, York Law School, University of York, United Kingdom
Small group discussions led by principal speakers and facilitating experts.
11:00 - 12:50 Healing for the Survivors
Trauma and Commemoration in Present Day Rwanda
Nicole Fox, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Brandeis University and newly appointed Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire
Reimagining a Nation: History, Culture, and Identity in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Aimable Twagilimana, Associate Professor, English Department, SUNY Buffalo State College
Small group discussions led by principal speakers and facilitating experts.
1:00 - 1:50 Lunch and Video: Confronting Evil: Genocide in Rwanda
2:00 - 4:00 Contemporary Rwandan Politics
A View from Kigali
Dr. Jean-Paul Kimonyo, Senior Policy Advisor to the President, Republic of Rwanda, and author
Rwanda Past and Present: An Insider-Outsider View
Noel Twagiramungu, human rights activist and Ph.D. Candidate, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Small group discussions led by principal speakers and facilitating experts.
4:10 - 5:00 Wrap-Up General Discussion
Reflections on Alison Des Forges’ role in Rwandan history and a concluding conversation among the facilitating experts, followed by an open discussion.
Facilitating Experts
Jennie Burnet, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, author of Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory, and Silence in Rwanda
Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director - East, Horn, and Great Lakes of Africa, Amnesty International, Nairobi, Kenya; author of numerous reports on conditions of human rights in central Africa
Father Leonard Kayondo, genocide survivor and chaplain at St. Ann Hospital in Fall River, Massachusetts
Timothy Longman, Associate Professor and Director of the African Studies Program, Boston University; author of Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda
Catharine Newbury, Professor Emerita of History and Government, Smith College; author of The Cohension of Oppression: Clientship and Ethnicity in Rwanda, 1860-1960
David Newbury, Professor of History Emeritus, Smith College; author of The Land Beyond the Mists: Essays on Authority and Identity in Precolonial Congo and Rwanda
Susan M. Thomson, Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Colgate University; author of Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda
Sponsors: University at Buffalo Humanities Institute, Office of the Vice Provost for International Education, and Department of History; Hodgson Russ, L.L.P.
All events are free and open to the public.
This symposium honors the life and work of human rights activist Alison Des Forges (1942-2009). For more information, contact at Helene Kramer at Helene.Kramer@gmail.com.