Teach-In on Rwandan President Visit to Yale

Students and faculty from Yale University gathered outside the University lecture hall where Rwandan President Paul Kagame later delivered the annual Coca-Cola World Fund Lecture at Yale on September 21, 2016. The students and faculty held a “teach-in” intended to educate the community about President Kagame’s much-criticized human rights record.

“We are here because Yale has misrepresented President Kagame’s record by praising his leadership in the ‘promotion of human rights,’” explained Yale Law School student Alyssa Yamamoto '18. “This laudatory description is a far cry from the truth. We hope this teach-in will raise more awareness about the reality of the human rights situation in Rwanda.”

According to human rights advocates, President Kagame has presided over a record of grave human rights violations in Rwanda and neighboring states. In a public statement, students and faculty recognized President Kagame’s role in ending the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and bringing economic and social stability to his country but also pointed to human rights violations committed under President Kagame’s leadership and reported by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations.

“There is extensive and credible documentation of violations over many years,” said Elizabeth Leiserson '17. “We are dismayed that Yale would honor someone who has presided over countless arbitrary arrests and detentions, summary and arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, due process rights violations, and unlawful restrictions on the freedom of expression and association.”

Yale’s online introduction of President Kagame makes no mention of this record of rights abuses. In a letter dated September 19, 2016 many members of the Yale community urged the University’s administration to remedy its unabashedly one-sided representation of President Kagame.

“We’re troubled that Yale has honored President Kagame by inviting him to give the Coca-Cola Lecture. This is not an opportunity for genuine academic debate,” said Yale Professor James Silk. “The University’s invitation and announcement simply endorse not only continued impunity for documented human rights violations, but also the inaccurate and dangerous view that economic development justifies human rights abuses.”