Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, has said that Rwanda is a beacon to the world of what healing and reconciliation looks like.

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She was speaking at a conference that focuses on the art and science of peace, resilience and transformational justice, in Kigali, on July 26.

Organized by Aegis Trust, together with the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement, University of Rwanda, and Tufts University, the conference brought together members of international organization, academicians, activists, and people involved in building peace in their own communities, among others.

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Knowing a testimony of a Genocide survivor woman who decided to forgive and adopt a man who killed her biological son, Nderitu said it is very difficult to imagine that thinking and what kind of human being does that.

She said: "Rwanda is a beacon to the world of what healing and reconciliation resemble and feel like. It has been three decades since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and it’s a humbling reminder of just the capacity the ordinary human beings have for evil to destroy but also to begin working on healing and reconciliation.”

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Acknowledging the need to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes, Nderitu noted that it is equally important to implement changes in society, providing a ground base for durable peace in the future. She said that it is in this forward-looking approach that gives hope for a construction of a world free from Genocide-related crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

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"The responsibility of building a more peaceful world lies with each of us,” she said referring to the launched Isoko Peace Institute, a global organization based in Rwanda to enable people to learn what it means to practice peace on a daily basis, through education.

The event organizers conducted a media workshop on countering hate speech. The workshop brought together journalists from different parts of the world to understand how to counter hate speech.

The office of the Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention wants to draw an action plan to counter hate speech around the world. The action plan will inform policies in all countries on how to counter hate speech, identify it, and make sure that it is prevented.