30th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: Remembering Rwanda and Acknowledging the Permanent Intergenerational Legacy of Genocide

April 7 marks the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. April has also been designated as Genocide Awareness Month.

We reflected on the 30th Anniversary of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and acknowledge the start of the mourning period for the over million innocent men, women, and children who were mercilessly murdered in just 100 days. This remembrance event commemorates and draws lessons from the Genocide. Panelists discuss transitional and reparative justice responses to the Genocide, intergeneration transmission of trauma and ways to mitigate trauma-related intergenerational effects, sexual violence as a weapon of genocide and climates of hate as pre-cursors to ethnic violence and genocide. The panel includes survivors of the Genocide, who share their testimonies about surviving the Genocide and their lives since.

Welcome:
Catherine van Kampen, Co-Chair, United Nations Committee, New York City Bar Association

Moderator:
Jacqueline Murekatete, Survivor & Founder, Genocide Survivors Foundation

Panel:
Consolee Nishimwe, Survivor, Author & Global Human Rights Activist
Dr. Sophia Murashkovsky Romma, Co-Chair, United Nations Committee, New York City Bar Association
Dr. Michelle Sanders, Licensed Psychologist, Co-Founder, FAFI (Female Advocacy Foundation International), Advisory Board Member and Co-Chair Yazidi Working Group, International Center for the  Multi-Generational Legacies of Trauma

Honorary UN Speaker:
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide

Closing Remarks:
His Excellency Ernest Rwamucyo, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations

Sponsoring Committee:
United Nations, Ervin Nina, Sophia Murashkovsky, & Catherine van Kampen, Co-Chairs

Cosponsoring Committees:
African Affairs, Melissa Verpile, Chair
Council on International Affairs, Mark A. Meyer, Chair

Cosponsoring Organizations:
Female Advocacy Foundation International (FAFI)
Genocide Survivors Foundation (GSF)
Garden of the Avant-Garde Film and Theatrical Foundation