Aegis Trust on July 26 announced a plan to construct Isōko Peace Institute, a global institute of peace education that will be based in Rwanda to promote and share best practices for peacebuilding across the world.
ALSO READ: Aegis Trust CEO Freddy Mutanguha on peace conference, new Isoko Peace Institute
This was during the start of a three-day conference dubbed "Listening and Leading: The Art and Science of Peace, Resilience and Transformational Justice”, which brings together 400 participants including scholars, policymakers, peacebuilders, among other high-ranking officials.
The institution set to cost about $40 million in construction and programme operations will showcase Rwanda’s peace efforts rising from the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and lessons from other parts of the world, according to Freddy Mutanguha, the CEO of Aegis Trust and Director of Kigali Genocide Memorial.
"As Rwandans, we share the resilience that led us to have home-grown solutions and the struggle of RPF-Inkotanyi to liberate Rwandans from a genocidal regime, bring peace and establish a government based on national unity. This should be a significant lesson to the world,” he said.
Mutanguha noted that Rwanda is not an island and much as it has something to share with the world, there are things the country can also learn from others.
ALSO READ: Rwanda, a beacon of healing, reconciliation to the world – UN Genocide prevention chief
Isōko Peace Institute is expected to be inaugurated by the end of 2026, in Bugesera District. The location was specifically chosen because it is where the genocidal government decided to conduct a Genocide trial to test what would be the reaction of the international community.
It will build on Aegis Trust’s experience in peace education and foster a place for peace practitioners to be taught the practice of prevention, develop diagnostic tools, demonstrate the power of forgiveness, illustrate case studies of reconciliation, create partnerships for scale, and enhance networks and resources.
It is expected to feature a world-class exhibition that will showcase how the Holocaust and the Genocide against the Tutsi shared roots in white supremacy and colonial racism, how Rwanda rose from the ashes, and how the model for peace education developed at Kigali Genocide Memorial is relevant far beyond Rwanda’s borders.
It has a training centre to build communities resilient to pressures that lead to violence, and encourage partnerships and research programmes to improve effectiveness of peace education. It has a trauma healing centre that will serve as a retreat for peacebuilders on the front line of prevention practice, designed for whole body and mind restoration, as well as a situation room used to develop strategic advocacy and campaigns for prevention, mitigation and ending of large-scale identity-based violence wherever it is a high risk or already happening.
ALSO READ: Rwandan youth urged to strive for peace
Jean-Damascène Bizimana, the Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, said the institute will be timely in driving dialogues that will promote peace education, experience sharing, and actions to counter hate speeches and violence across.
"It will also enhance trans-generation dialogues for elders to teach values and peaceful practices to young ones. People do not necessarily have to view things in the same way but should be able to live in harmony, especially when they have things in common like being part of the same nation.”
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, said it is everyone’s responsibility to build a more peaceful world. She commended the role the new institution will play in enabling people to learn what it means to practice peace on a daily basis, through education.
The conference featured dialogues aimed at promoting peace, resilience and transformational justice. It also featured a media workshop on countering hate speech, bringing together journalists from different parts of the world.