Historian, Activist. She is best remembered for raising worldwide public awareness about the 1994 Rawanda genocide, in which over 800,000 lives were lost. She graduated from Radcliffe College and then Yale University, where her PhD dissertation focused on the impact of European colonialism on Rawanda. Later in her academic career she specialized in the African Great Lakes region and studied the Rwandan Genocide. As an expert on human rights violations, she testified many times before international criminal tribunals, the United Nations and various national and international organizations. Her book, "Leave None to Tell the Story" (1999), examined the causes of the Rawanda genocide. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999 in recognition of her work. She became the senior adviser at Human Rights Watch for the African continent, a position she held at the time of her death. She died along with 49 others in an plane crash.
Historian, Activist. She is best remembered for raising worldwide public awareness about the 1994 Rawanda genocide, in which over 800,000 lives were lost. She graduated from Radcliffe College and then Yale University, where her PhD dissertation focused on the impact of European colonialism on Rawanda. Later in her academic career she specialized in the African Great Lakes region and studied the Rwandan Genocide. As an expert on human rights violations, she testified many times before international criminal tribunals, the United Nations and various national and international organizations. Her book, "Leave None to Tell the Story" (1999), examined the causes of the Rawanda genocide. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999 in recognition of her work. She became the senior adviser at Human Rights Watch for the African continent, a position she held at the time of her death. She died along with 49 others in an plane crash.
Bio by: Fred Beisser
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