Hon. Dr. Monique Mujawamariya (born 27 July 1955) is a

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

n human rights activist who moved to Canada and then South Africa. She was a survivor of the

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 ...

and she won an international award in 1995.Enlightened Post Wat Initiative ... role for NGOs
Carl Gershman, President, November 13, 2002, National Endowment for Democracy, Retrieved 1 March 2016 In 2014 she was living in South Africa where she is concerned with women's rights.

Life

Mujawamariya was born in Butare in Rwanda in 1955. She became concerned with human rights and formed the Rwandan ADL (french: Association rwandaise pour la Défense de la personne et des Libertés publiques).

The genocide

On the 6 April 1994, the Rwandan President

Juvenal Habyarimana Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

died when his aircraft was shot down and this event immediately preceded what was to be known as the

in which an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 people are thought to have died. Mujawamariya was a targeted figure in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

, where Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines called her a "bad patriot who deserves to die". She was in communication with Alison Des Forges every 30 minutes because of this threat and the aircrash. Des Forges was a member of

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 ...

and she was told to look after her children when Mujawamariya ended the call to avoid her friend hearing her die. As it was, Mujawamariya survived.15 Years ago today...
Papicek, 6 April 2009, European Tribune, Retrieved 1 March 2016 Mujawamariya managed to escape by running into her garden until the soldiers left. She then hid in a roof space for 40 hours before brazenly approaching the soldiers armed only with a picture of her late husband in uniform. After she had paid a substantial bribe, she was able to escape and contact Des Forges. Des Forges arranged for her to be put on a list for evacuation, and she escorted Mujawamariya through the soldiers who surrounded the airport. Mujawamariya escaped, having sent her children to the south of the country. Weeks later, she still did not know what had happened to her three children. Mujawamariya was able to fly to Washington, where she met Anthony Lake who was an advisor to President Clinton. She had been amongst a group who had met Clinton the previous December. However, there was little sympathy as it was judged that Rwanda, and its problems, were outside of America's national interest. She was awarded the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy in 1995, and the same year she was given an honorary doctorate by

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

.Monique Mujawamariya
Africultures.com, Retrieved 1 March 2016

Today

Mujawamariya now (2014) lives in Cape Town where she works on issues relating to women's rights. She returned to Rwanda to attend her son William's wedding in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mujawamariya, Monique 1955 births Living people People from Butare Rwandan human rights activists Women human rights activists Rwandan women's rights activists Rwandan women activists