Alison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky; August 20, 1942 – February 12, 2009) was an American historian and
human rights activist
A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...
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 ...
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
The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...
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
Yuhi Musinga (Yuhi V of Rwanda, 1883 – 13 January 1944) was a king ('' umwami'') of Rwanda who came to power in 1896 and collaborated with the German government to strengthen his own kingship. In 1931 he was deposed by the Belgian administrat ...
, it shows how divisions among different groups in Rwanda shaped their responses to colonial governments, missionaries and traders.
She 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 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
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...
in recognition of her work as a "human rights leader." She became the senior advisor 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 ...
for the African continent.
She died on February 12, 2009, in the air crash of
Continental Connection Flight 3407
Colgan Air Flight 3407 was a scheduled passenger flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, on February 12, 2009. Approaching Buffalo, the aircraft, a Bombardier Q400, entered an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover and c ...
, 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
Hon. Dr. Monique Mujawamariya (born 27 July 1955) is a Rwandan human rights activist who moved to Canada and then South Africa. She was a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and she won an international award in 1995. 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
René Lemarchand (born 1932) is a French- American political scientist who is known for his research on ethnic conflict and genocide in Rwanda, Burundi and Darfur. Publishing in both English and French, he is particularly known for his work on t ...
states, "That the story of Rwanda is at all known in the United States today owes much to the work of
Philip Gourevitch
Philip Gourevitch (born 1961), an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and a former editor of ''The Paris Review''.
His most recent book is '' The Ballad of Abu Ghraib'' (2008), an account of Iraq's A ...
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
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 ...
.
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''.