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Netherlands Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire transitioned from a distinguished military career, notably as Force Commander of UNAMIR during the Rwandan genocide, to an influential advocate for human rights, ethical leadership, and mental health awareness.
Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire is a Senior Fellow at MIGS and co-director of the MIGS Will to Intervene Project.
Dallaire is the founder of this global partnership, which has the mission to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
Dallaire was awarded the inaugural Aegis Trust Award in 2002 and is associated with the organization that works worldwide to prevent genocide and mass atrocities and operates the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda.
Dallaire was a Fellow of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, pursuing research on conflict resolution and the use of child soldiers.
Lt. Gen. Roméo A. Dallaire's professional papers related to his UNAMIR service during the Rwandan genocide are featured in the USMA Library, in collaboration with the Resnick Center.
Roméo Antonius Dallaire was born on June 25, 1946, in Denekamp, Netherlands, to a Canadian non-commissioned officer and a Dutch nurse. He immigrated to Canada as an infant, spending his childhood in Montreal. In 1963, Dallaire enrolled in the Canadian Army as a cadet and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree, subsequently commissioned into The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. Throughout his early military career, he furthered his education at various prestigious institutions, including the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College and the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College. His leadership roles included commanding the 5e Régiment d’artillerie légère du Canada and the 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, and serving as commandant of Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean from 1990 to 1993, where he attained the rank of Brigadier-General in 1989.
In late 1993, Dallaire was appointed Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). His mandate was to oversee the implementation of the Arusha Accords amid a civil war. Despite facing rapidly deteriorating conditions and repeated requests for reinforcements, which were denied by the UN Security Council, Dallaire remained in Rwanda. He consolidated his limited forces in urban areas, prioritizing the protection of specific locations where Tutsis were hiding. His efforts and those of his staff are credited with saving the lives of approximately 32,000 people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a period when between 800,000 and 1,171,000 people were murdered over 100 days.
Following his return to Canada, Dallaire held several key military commands, including Deputy Commander of Land Force Command and Commander of 1 Canadian Division. By 1998, he was Assistant Deputy Minister (Human Resources – Military) at NDHQ. Dallaire officially retired from the military in 2000, having reached the rank of Lieutenant-General. His experiences in Rwanda had a profound impact on him; he publicly shared his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and became a vocal advocate for veterans’ mental health. Later, from 2005 to 2014, he served as a Canadian Senator from Quebec, continuing his work on human rights, ethical leadership, and the prevention of child soldiers as founder of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.
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