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John Humphrey Freedom Award laureate to visit five Canadian cities

News release

MONTREAL, OCT. 26, 2004  - Rwanda 's Godeliève Mukasarasi, winner of Rights & Democracy's 2004 John Humphrey Freedom Award, arrives in Canada Nov. 27 for two weeks of engagements with Canadians in five cities.

Ms Mukasarasi will be in Halifax on Monday, Nov 29; Moncton on Tuesday, Nov 30; Toronto on Thursday, Dec. 2 and Friday, Dec. 3; Montreal on Monday, Dec. 6, and Tuesday, Dec. 7; and will conclude her tour in Ottawa, where she will be from Wednesday, Dec. 8, to Friday, Dec. 10. The official John Humphrey Freedom Award presentation ceremony takes place Thursday, Dec. 9, on the eve of International Human Rights Day.

A survivor of the 1994 genocide, Ms. Mukasarasi has gone on to make an invaluable contribution to the promotion of human rights and democratic development in Rwanda as a social worker with the Women's Network for Rural Development and as the founder of SEVOTA , a support group for the widows and orphans of the April 19, 1994, massacre of Tutsi in the town of Taba.

"Through her courage, her enthusiasm and her unwavering commitment, she has succeeded in gaining the trust of victims of rape and sexual violence, particularly women who contracted HIV-AIDS, as well as in breaking the silence and helping these women obtain justice," said Kathleen Mahoney, Chairperson of Rights & Democracy's Board of Directors.

Ms. Mukasarasi has worked actively for several years to improve the status and fate of women in her country. Her commitment has proven incredibly influential and S EVOTA now involves close to 80 organizations, including the group Urunana , which is made up of 230 Tutsi and Hutu women survivors of the genocide.

She has facilitated the testimony of women survivors of the genocide from Taba and throughout Rwanda before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and has helped rape victims gain access to medical care at the national level.

Thanks to the contribution of the women of Taba in documenting crimes of sexual violence during the genocide, a historic legal precedent was set on October 2, 1998 , when the ICTR imposed the first ever sentence for sexual violence perpetrated in the context of civil war and recognized rape as an act of genocide and torture.

Created in 1992, the John Humphrey Freedom Award is given each year by Rights & Democracy. Named in honour of John Peters Humphrey, the Canadian law professor who prepared the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the award includes a $25,000 grant as well as a speaking tour of Canadian cities aimed at raising public awareness of the recipient's work on behalf of human rights.