General Roméo Dallaire is a celebrated advocate for global human rights, as well as a highly-respected author, public speaker, leadership consultant, international advisor, former CanadianSenator, and founder of the Fondation Romeo Dallaire, and the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security. Throughout his distinguished military career, General Dallaire served mostnotably as Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
General Dallaire provided the United Nations with information about the planned massacre, which ultimately took more than 800,000 lives in less than 100 days; yet, the UN ordered him not to intervene. In the third week of the genocide, the Secretary-General himself ordered the withdrawalof UN peacekeeping forces. General Dallaire, along with a small continent of Canadian, Ghanaian,and Tunisian soldiers and military observers, disobeyed that order. They believed they had a moralobligation to stay, to help where they could, and to—at the very least—bear witness to what the restof the world chose to turn its back. Armed only with blue berets, General Dallaire saved 32,000 people from brutal massacre, whilenegotiating with rebels leaders to stop the killing, and pleading with UN member states and theinternational media to intervene. If he had received only a few thousand troops and someammunition to back up his bluffs, General Dallaire likely could have put an end to the bloodshed. Instead, two million human beings were displaced and upwards of a million slaughtered.
General Dallaire’s courage and leadership during this mission earned him the Order of Canada, theMeritorious Service Cross, the United States Legion of Merit, the Aegis Award on GenocidePrevention, and the affection and admiration of people around the globe. Whether as military commander, humanitarian, speaker, or author, Roméo Dallaire works tirelesslyto bring national and international attention to situations too-often ignored, whether the preventionof mass atrocities and the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and moral injury on veterans of security forces and their families, orstrategic solutions for lasting peace.
