Eugénie Musayidire

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Eugénie Musayidire (born December 25, 1952 in Rwanda ) is a Rwandan human rights activist and author . In 2007 she was honored with the Nuremberg International Human Rights Prize.

Life

Eugénie Musayidire grew up as a member of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda and fled her home country in 1973 because of an imminent arrest. First she studied economics and social sciences at the University of Burundi in neighboring Burundi . In 1977 she successfully applied for political asylum in Germany and trained as a pharmaceutical-technical assistant . She initially lived with her newly founded family in Siegburg and worked in the migration and foreign work department of the Evangelical Church District there, later she worked for the Evangelical Development Service in Bonn .

During the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, her mother, her brother and numerous relatives, friends and acquaintances were murdered. A friend brought her a stone from her parents' house, which had been completely destroyed. This stone was meant when she gave her book, published in 1999, in which she dealt with her grief and despair, the title "My stone speaks: ...".

Eugénie Musayidire works in an exemplary way for reconciliation between the warring ethnic groups of the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda. After her escape, she visited her home country for the first time in 2001. In the same year she founded the association “Hope in Ruanda e. V. “With the support of the Evangelical Development Service, she set up the youth exchange and therapy center IZERE in the Rwandan city of Nyanza in 2003 , where children and adolescents who suffered from the consequences of the genocide were cared for and given targeted assistance and therapeutic offers.

Her life, her visit to Rwanda in 2001, the encounter with the murderer of her loved one (a former neighbor) and her efforts to achieve reconciliation were all featured in the film My Mother's Killer. A woman wants justice documented by Martin Buchholz . This film was awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize in 2003 in the “Special” category.

On September 30, 2007, Musayidire was awarded the Nuremberg International Human Rights Prize. The eulogy was given by the former Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, Doudou Diène .

In May 2015, the broadcaster ARD-alpha broadcast a 45-minute documentary entitled My stone speaks - Rwanda's long path to reconciliation , which focused on Eugénie Musayidire's story.

Publications

  • My stone speaks: Texts of grief, despair, anger, indictment and protest about the murder of my mother during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 . Horlemann, Bad Honnef 1999, ISBN 978-3-89502-106-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Presentation of the award winner Eugénie Musayidire , Human Rights Office of the City of Nuremberg, nuernberg.de, accessed on February 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Book review on imbuto.net, accessed on February 18, 2018 (PDF file)
  3. ↑ 2007 award ceremony , Human Rights Office of the City of Nuremberg , nuernberg.de, accessed on February 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ Documentary film My stone speaks , ARD-alpha, May 25, 2015, programm.ard.de, accessed on February 18, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Musayidire, Eugénie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rwandan human rights activist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Rwanda