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 ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the ...

region, particularly the 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

. 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, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

. 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 The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

who specializes in China. Des Forges earned her BA in History from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

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

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

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

European colonialism The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turkish people, Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the mode ...

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 (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

and in

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

. 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 commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

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 An aviation accident is defined by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any p ...

of Continental Connection Flight 3407, en route from

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

, New Jersey, to her home in Buffalo, New York.

Witness to Rwandan genocide

Des Forges is thought to have been the most knowledgeable American on 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 under way 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; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

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

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

, the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( nl, Senaat, ; french: Sénat, ; german: Senat) is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parlia ...

, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washingto ...

, the

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...

, 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 weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...

-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 ...

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 is 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 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)