On the occasion of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UNESCO will hold a commemoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide. The commemoration is organized in cooperation with the Permanent Delegation of Rwanda to UNESCO and will include two exhibitions, a ceremony and a round table.

7 April 1994 marks the beginning of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda perpetrated by the Hutu extremist-led government. Within the following 100 days, more than 800,000 members of the Tutsi minority were systematically murdered. Moderate Hutu and others who opposed the killings were also killed during that period. In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 7 April the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

UNESCO will mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi with the inauguration of two exhibitions, “Upright Men” by Bruce Clarke and “The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda” by the Shoah Memorial, in the UNESCO Foyer, followed by a ceremony in Room I.

Both events will take place in the presence of the General-Director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda in France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, H.E. Mr Jacques Kabale. The ceremony will include a procession in memory of the victims of the genocide, a testimony by Jeanne Allaire, survivor of the genocide, and musical contributions by the Rwandan artists Daniel Ngarukiye and Nirere Shanel. A round table on the theme “Memory, research and transmission” with the participation of Florent Piton, historian, Annette Becker, historian, Anita Cyabakanga, Deputy Secretary-General of the association IBUKA France, and Diogène Bideri, of the Rwandan National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, will conclude the commemoration.