Thirty years after genocide killed hundreds of thousands of its people, Rwanda launched the Isōko Peace Institute to help communities worldwide learn to live in harmony.
The announcement was made during a three-day peace conference at the University of Rwanda that featured 400 academics, policymakers and high-ranking authorities.
“Peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It is the presence of justice, equity and respect for human dignity,” Kayihura Muganga Didas, vice chancellor of the University of Rwanda, told attendees. “Together, peace and resilience form the bedrock of a healthy, progressive society.”
Nearly 70% of Rwanda’s population was born after the 1994 genocide, a nationwide massacre of the Tutsi people that unfolded in about 100 days.
The exact number of deaths is uncertain. International organizations put the number between 500,000 and 800,000. Rwandan authorities say more than 1 million people died. The genocide ended after the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of the country.
Former RPF commander Paul Kagame was elected president of Rwanda in 2000 and recently won a fourth term in office.
Rwanda’s military has built its reputation for peacekeeping operations against rebels in northern Mozambique. However, the international community has said the Rwandan military is supporting M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, driving the ongoing conflict in North Kivu and neighboring provinces. Rwandan authorities deny involvement with M23.
Jean-Damascène Bizimana, Rwanda’s minister of national unity and civic engagement, said the peace institute will promote peace education, experience sharing, and actions that oppose hate speeches and violence.
“It will also enhance trans-generation dialogues for elders to teach values and peaceful practices to young ones,” Bizimana told the conference. “People do not necessarily have to view things in the same way but should be able to live in harmony, especially when they have things in common like being part of the same nation.”
Freddy Mutanguha, director of Kigali Genocide Memorial, said Rwandans have much to teach the world about reliance and reconciliation through the Isōko Peace Institute. Mutanguha leads the AEGIS Trust, which established the Kigali Genocide Memorial and is dedicated to preventing future genocides.
“As Rwandans, we share the resilience that led us to have home-grown solutions and the struggle of RPF-Inkotanyi to liberate Rwandans from a genocidal regime, bring peace and establish a government based on national unity. This should be a significant lesson to the world,” Mutanguha told the conference attendees.
Construction of the $40 million institute is set to begin in 2026 in the Bugesera district, which was the site of a 1992 killing of 300 Tutsis by local Hutus. The trial for those killings was suspended indefinitely by the then-Hutu dominated government.
The Isōko Peace Institute will include a training center to strengthen communities against the potential for violence and to encourage research into ways to improve education about peace. It also will feature a retreat center for people working on the front lines of peacebuilding and a situation room for developing ways to prevent, mitigate and end large-scale identity-based violence.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General Alice Wairimu Nderitu attended the conference as the U.N. secretary-general’s special advisor on the prevention of genocide. Nderitu commended the new institute for offering lessons on what it means to practice peace daily.
“Rwanda is the beacon to the world of what the healing and reconciliation process feel like,” Nderitu said. “Much has been shared here and will be shared here, learning from experiences, challenges and successes that have something to teach us.”
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