2011 LANTOS HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE RECIPIENT
PAUL RUSESABAGINA
In 2011, Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of the acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda, was awarded the Lantos Human Rights Prize. During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Rusesabagina served as manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali. He courageously risked his life to shelter more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, saving them from almost certain death at the hands of the genocidaires.
In 2000, Rusesabagina received the Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity for his acts of courage and decency during the Rwandan genocide. In 2005, President George W. Bush conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon him, and that same year he also received the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Humanitarian Award. Following these honors, Rusesabagina founded the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation to give voice to the victims of genocide and to support peace efforts in Rwanda and globally. Rusesabagina’s story was chronicled in his 2006 autobiography An Ordinary Man.
Guests at the Prize ceremony heard from speakers such as Congressman Jack Kingston, Congressman Ed Royce, and Ambassador Robert Krueger before Paul Rusesabagina delivered his remarks. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation, recognized Rusesabagina’s bravery and conviction, saying:
"Seventeen years ago, when Rwanda desperately needed to be the center of the universe, the world instead turned away. As a genocidal assault was unleashed on the Tutsi people, the community of nations, to their everlasting shame, stood by and did nothing. And as a consequence, nearly one million Rwandans were massacred in just 100 days. But while the mighty and powerful found reasons and excuses to turn away, Paul Rusesabagina, a self-described ordinary man, did not turn away. Paul’s brave and profoundly decent actions as the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines, saved the lives of over 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus who had taken refuge in his hotel.”