Alison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky; August 20, 1942 – February 12, 2009) was an American historian and human rights activist who specialized in the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...

region, particularly the 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

. At the time of her death, she was a senior advisor for the African continent at

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

. She died in a plane crash on 12 February 2009.

Life

Alison Des Forges was born Alison B. Liebhafsky on August 20, 1942, to Sybil Small and Herman A. Liebhafsky. In 1964, she married Roger Des Forges, a historian at the State University of New York at Buffalo who specializes in China. Des Forges earned her BA in history from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

in 1964, and her MA and a PhD in the same discipline from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1966 and 1972. Her master's thesis and doctoral dissertation both addressed the impact of

European colonialism The phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by various civilizations such as the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Han Chinese, and Ar ...

on Rwanda.Chan, Sewell (2009-02-13)
"Alison Des Forges, Human Rights Advocate, Is Dead at 66"
''New York Times''. Retrieved February 13, 2009. Her dissertation ''Defeat Is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896–1931'' was published posthumously in 2011. Describing the politics of the court during the reign of Yuhi Musinga, it shows how divisions among different groups in Rwanda shaped their responses to colonial governments, missionaries and traders. She specialized in the

region and studied the Rwandan genocide. She was also an authority on human rights violations in the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

and in

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

. Des Forges left academia in 1994 in response to the Rwandan genocide to work full-time on human rights."Alison des Forges"
. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved February 13, 2009. In 1999, she was named a MacArthur Fellow in recognition of her work as a "human rights leader." She became the senior advisor at

for the African continent. She died on February 12, 2009, in the air crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, en route from Newark, New Jersey, to her home in Buffalo, New York.

Witness to Rwandan genocide

Des Forges is thought to have been the most knowledgeable American about the genocide as it was unfolding. Aside from her education, she had been visiting Rwanda since 1963. In April 1994, she began calling fellow activist Monique Mujawamariya in Rwanda every half-hour, and could hear the gunfire approaching steadily closer with each conversation. She was on the phone with Mujawmariya, when Mujawmariya apologized for putting the receiver down, as she did not want Des Forges to hear her die. She also asked Des Forges to care for her children. Mujawmariya lived, but her reports meant that
Papicek, 9 April 2009, European Tribune, Retrieved 1 March 2016 Des Forges was one of the first outsiders to observe that a full-blown genocide was underway in Rwanda, and afterwards led a team of researchers to establish the facts. She testified 11 times before the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...

, and gave evidence about the Rwandan genocide to panels of the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

, the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( ; ; ) is one of the two chambers of the Bicameralism, bicameral Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be ...

, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

, the

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

, and the United Nations. She was the primary author of the 1999 book ''Leave None to Tell the Story'', which ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' both describe as the definitive account of the Rwandan genocide. In the book, she argued that the genocide was organized by the

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

-dominated Rwandan government at the time, rather than being a spontaneous outbreak of tribal conflicts.

Legacy

Africanist René Lemarchand states, "That the story of Rwanda is at all known in the United States today owes much to the work of Philip Gourevitch and Alison Des Forges." The Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism is named after her; until 2009, it was known as the Human Rights Defenders Award. It was given out by

Bibliography

* Des Forges, Alison.
Defeat Is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musiinga, 1896–1931
' (1972; 2011). * Des Forges, Alison. ''Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda'' – Human Rights Watch et FIDH – 1999 – . * Roth, Kenneth; DesForges, Alison (Summer 2002)

''Boston Review''.

References

External links

Bio at Human Rights Watch website

Tribute at Human Rights Watch website
* ttp://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13137097 Obituary: Alison Des Forges, ''The Economist'', February 19, 2009br>Defeat Is the Only Bad NewsAlison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky), Index to the Derscheid Collection Reels

Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Des Forges, Alison 1942 births 2009 deaths Accidental deaths in New York (state) 20th-century American historians American human rights activists American women human rights activists Human Rights Watch people MacArthur Fellows Writers from Schenectady, New York People of the Rwandan genocide Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Radcliffe College alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American women historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Activists from New York (state) Historians of Rwanda Historians from New York (state) Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2009