Romeo Dallaire

Roméo Dallaire is a retired Canadian Lieutenant-General and Senator, known for his leadership during the Rwandan genocide and his ongoing advocacy for human rights, ethical leadership, and mental health awareness. After being appointed Force Commander of UNAMIR, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, in late 1993, Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire led a critically under-resourced multinational peacekeeping force. He and his team are credited with saving 32,000 lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, despite urgent pleas for reinforcements to the UN Security Council being largely denied. Prior to this, Dallaire had a distinguished Canadian Army career, graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970.

In 2010, he authored ‘They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers,’ leveraging his expertise for global policy change. Dallaire founded the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers worldwide. His ongoing advocacy extends to mental health awareness, where he openly discusses his personal struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), detailed in his 2016 memoir, ‘Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD.’ Lieutenant-General Dallaire remains a prominent international voice, leveraging his profound experiences to drive global conversations on human rights, ethical leadership, and mental health awareness, pursuing systemic change.