RWANDA:Real life hero of acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda to speak at Mitchell Monday, Nov. 28

Paul Rusesabagina, author of “An Ordinary Man,” the memoir that became the film Hotel Rwanda, will speak at William Mitchell College of Law from 1 to 3 pm Monday, Nov. 28. His speech, “Human Rights, Democracy, and Dictatorship: The Rwanda Experience,” is free and open to the public.

Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of Hotel Rwanda, received the 2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom and the 2011 Lantos Human Rights Prize

Rusesabagina,  who was portrayed by Academy Award nominated actor Don Cheadle in “Hotel Rwanda,”  is the former manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali, where he risked his life to shelter both Tutsis and Hutus who sought refuge from the Rwanda Genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of Rwandan people in 1994.
He was invited to speak by William Mitchell Professor Peter Erlinder, director of the International Humanitarian Law Institute, international criminal defense attorney, and former defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR). During his years at the ICTR, Professor Erlinder studied thousands of documents and witness testimonies as to how Rwanda’s tragedy unfolded, which are now compiled in his Rwanda Documents Project.
Rusesabagina is currently the president of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation. He tours the world speaking about social justice, human rights activism, and the ongoing East African conflict consequent to the Rwanda Genocide, which has cost millions more African lives, most of all in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Learn more about the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation.
Learn more about the International Humanitarian Law Institute.