Keynote Presentation:
Conflict Resolution, Leadership, and Human Rights
General Roméo Dallaire is going to discuss conflict resolution,
leadership, and human rights, drawn from his personal experiences. A brief
question and answer session will follow.
Lieutenant-General
The Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire
O.C., C.M.M., G.O.Q., M.S.C., C.D. (Retired) Senator
Lieutenant-General
Roméo A. Dallaire was born in Denekamp, Holland, on 25 June 1946. He
enrolled in the Canadian Army in 1964 after four years in the Cadets and the
Reserves. He attended the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean and
graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in 1969 from the Royal Military
College in Kingston, ON. He also attended the Canadian Land Forces Command
and Staff College and the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff
College in Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Carr Centre for Human Rights
Policy, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on 3 July 1989, he assumed
command of the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean. After studying at the
British Higher Command and Staff Course, Camberly, United Kingdom in the
spring of 1991, he was appointed Commander 5e Groupe-brigade mécanisé du
Canada at Valcartier on 5 July 1991. He left Valcartier on 1 July 1993 to
take command of the United Nations Observer Mission - Uganda and Rwanda
(UNOMUR) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). He
was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross in recognition of his exceptional
leadership and professionalism.
He was promoted to the rank of Major-General on 1 January 1994. From
September 1994 to October 1995, he assumed simultaneously the positions of
Deputy Commander of Land Force Command in St. Hubert and Commander of the
1st Canadian Division. On 2 June 1995, the Canadian Conference of Defense
Associations presented him with “The Vimy Award”. On 20 October 1995, he
assumed command of Land Force Quebec Area.
On 9 January 1996, he was awarded the Legion of Merit by the United
States and on 2 July 1996, he assumed the position of Chief of Staff to the
Assistant Deputy Minister (Personnel) Group. Promoted to Lieutenant-General,
he assumed the duties of Assistant Deputy Minister (Human
Resources-Military) in April 1998.
On 5 February 1999, Lieutenant-General Dallaire was appointed to the
position of Special Advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff for Officer
Professional Development. His duties there dealt with matters regarding the
Reform of the Officer Corps, including the General and Admiral Senior
Executive branch, and its professional development into the future. He
remained in this position until medically released from the Canadian Forces
on 18 April 2000.
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General
of Canada, on the advice of the Right Honourable Paul Martin, Prime Minister
of Canada, summoned General Dallaire to the Senate on 24 March 2005.
He remains a Special Advisor to the Minister responsible for the Canadian
International Development Agency on matters relating to War Affected
Children around the world, as well as the Minister of Veterans Affairs
Canada on matters relating to serving and retired members and their
families. The United Nations appointed Lieutenant-General Dallaire to an
Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention. Since his release from the
military, he has also worked to bring an understanding of post-traumatic
stress disorder to the general public. He is a visiting lecturer to a number
of Canadian and US universities and he has written several articles and
papers on Conflict Resolution and Humanitarian Aid/Human Rights. He is also
advisor to the Minister of National Defence on the professional development
and the education of the members of the Canadian Force.
In 2003 he published Shake Hands With The Devil – the failure of humanity in Rwanda, an internationally recognized best selling book on the Rwanda genocide based on his experiences in and after the United Nations Mission to Rwanda in 1993-94. The book was awarded the Governor General’s Literary award for Non-Fiction in 2004, and has garnered numerous international literacy awards. The book was released as a full-length feature film
Shake Hands With the Devil – The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, in the
fall of 2007 and won the Emmy Award for Best Documentary in the same year.
While a Fellow of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he pursued research on
conflict resolution and the use of child soldiers. He is a Senior Fellow at
Concordia in genocide research. General Dallaire has been named a Fellow of
Ryerson Polytechnic and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has also received numerous honorary
doctorates from Canadian and American universities.
He is the first recipient of the Aegis Award on Genocide Prevention from
the United Kingdom and was awarded the United Nations Association of
Canada’s Pearson Peace Medal, the Arthur Kroeger College Award for Ethics in
Public Affairs by Carlton University, the Harvard University Humanist Award
for 2005 and the Laureate of Excellence from the Manitoba Health Sciences
Centre.
He was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in October 2002 by
the Governor General of Canada and invested as a Grand Officer of the
National Order of Québec in June 2005. He is a Commander of the Order of
Military Merit. General Dallaire was appointed to the United Nations
Secretary General’s Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention in the spring
of 2006.
General Dallaire and his family live in Quebec City.