Oberlin's Marcel Mutsindashyaka to Address United Nations on International Day of Reflection

More than three decades ago, Marcel Mutsindashyaka lost most of his family in the genocide that unfolded over 100 days in Rwanda. Today, he is sharing his story of grief, resilience, and remembrance with the world.

Mutsindashyaka, Oberlin College and Conservatory's Chief Information Officer, will address the United Nations as part of a commemorative ceremony marking the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The ceremony, taking place at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Tuesday, April 7, can be streamed live on U.N. Web TV beginning at 10 a.m.

The genocide began on April 7, 1994, and included the murder of more than one million people—most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic group, but also those of Hutu heritage and others who opposed the killing. “Entire families were brutally erased,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a message marking the 32nd anniversary of what he called “one of the darkest chapters in human history.”

In 2003, the U.N. established the International Day of Reflection, and each year on April 7, it holds memorial events in New York and at U.N. offices around the world. 

The 10 a.m. ceremony, held in the General Assembly Hall, will be led by Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming, an Oberlin alumna from the Class of 1986. The program will include remarks from senior U.N. officials and international leaders, as well as short films, survivor testimony, a candle-lighting ceremony, and a musical tribute.

Mutsindashyaka will speak in his dual capacity as a genocide survivor and president of Ibuka USA, an organization dedicated to honoring the memory of victims, supporting survivors, and advocating for a world free from genocide.

“When I was 5 years old, I lost 27 members of my family, including my father and three of my siblings,” Mutsindashyaka says. “That experience has shaped who I am today and continues to influence how I see the world and how I serve with purpose, resilience, and a deep commitment to others.

“At the United Nations, I will be speaking on behalf of more than one million Tutsi who were killed during the genocide, as well as the hundreds of thousands of survivors whose lives were forever impacted and who continue to carry its legacy."

The annual observance serves as a reminder that the atrocities that took place in Rwanda are, in the words of Secretary-General Guterres, "never forgotten—and never repeated. Anywhere."