Alice Urusaro Karekezi
Tel + (250) 786 182572
E-mail addresses:
Career Summary
I have 20 years of experience working in Post-conflict setting on issues of Women’s Rights and Gender-based violence; Regional peace and security; Transitional justice. My career includes legal work in law firms (ex Zaïre and France) and law professor (Rwanda). Since 2013, I collaborate with sub-regional organizations, the Eastern African Standby Force and the East African Community, at the invitation of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) as expert on gender, peace and security and on issues of Civil-Military Cooperation in the context of the creation of African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). I am currently completing my PhD doctoral project with the School of Global Studies, at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. My diplomatic experience is as spouse of ambassador in Asia-Pacific and international Relations Expert in university cooperation.
Relevant experience
I have wide experience working with Government institutions, the African Union Directorate of Peace and Security on issues of UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security as well as Civil Society Organizations in Rwanda and Africa as well as multi and bilateral agencies. I possess a good command of both writing and speaking fluently, English (my language of work), French (my language of education till post-graduate studies at MA. Level); and Kinyarwanda (my mother tongue). I was born and grew up in ex-Zaïre and have travelled several times in Congo Brazzaville and Cameroon.
As a gender and security expert, my more recent assignments include the evaluation of the Government of Rwanda implementation plan of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325(2000) completed in February 2015, and the formulation of its future plan (2016-2020) completed in July 2016, in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion; the Gender Monitoring Office and Rwanda-based Care International. For the last five years, I have supported both the Rwanda Defense Forces and Rwanda National Police in their efforts of engendering the Security Forces and improving civil-military relations through pre-deployment trainings.
My permanent work is lecturer at the University of Rwanda-based Center for Conflict Management that I co-founded in 1999, doubled with International Relations officer. My work experience includes Criminology lecturer at the Law School of the National University of Rwanda (1996-2004). 4 years of legal work in law firms in Paris and Brussels (1992-1996), after graduating at the Académie d’Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France.
Another important aspect of my work includes expert trainings that focuses on the protection of Women’s rights against Sexual and Gender Based Violence: for example, in the UN Women funded project executed by Legal Aid Forum on Protection of Women Rights through the Management of Gender Based Crimes, comprising Judicial Officers; Attorneys, Prosecutors and Rights Organizations in 2013.
My training audience includes the Senior Military, the Police, and Civilians Officers prepared for Peace Support Operations. I am a certified UNITAR trainer, and had trained the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (2013) on Gender, Leadership and Peacebuilding and Advanced Course on Governance; for East Africa Standby force (2014), Diplomacy for Peace and Security on transitional justice and peacebuilding with the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA), Nyakinama Rwanda.
On the invitation of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) as Head of Civilian Component /and or Gender Adviser to the Head of Mission, I have participated in 4 multidimensional and integrated Command Post Exercises (CPX) and Field Training Exercises (FTX), for the East African Community Forces “ USHIRIKIANO IMARA” and the Eastern African Standby Force, “ MASHARIKI SALAM”. More recently (2015), I took part in an intercontinental CPX “MALIZA UGAIDI”, a Joint Counter Violent Extremism Operations led by the United States Army for Africa (USAFR), the Royal Army of The Netherlands, the African Union, Germany, the International Red Cross, with the Eastern African Standby Forces (EASF). At the invitation of the Rwanda National Police supported by UN Women, I have trained in the context of the UN Secretary General’s Ban Ki Moon in the CPXs organized in Kigali in 2013 and 2015.
My career as an educationalist includes occasional lectures in various international institutions. I have been a guest lecturer in, and for various institutions, including, at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2010) on women and public policy at the invitation of Ambassador Swanee Hunt; University of United Nations, (Tokyo, between 2006 and 2009); Geneva Center for Security Policy (Switzerland, 2007); United States Institute for Peace (2014); United Nations Institute for Research and Training (Switzerland, 2012 and 2013); International Peace Support Training Centre ( Kenya, 2012); Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA, 2012 and 2013), School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg (Sweden, 2005-2011), King’s College, London School of Economics, ( United Kingdom, 2011) ; Legal Aid Forum (Rwanda, 2013), University of Peace; Africa Program (Ethiopia, 2010); Centre for Gender, Culture and Development, Kigali Institute of Education(Rwanda, 2012 to date); Human Rights Center, University of California at Berkeley (US, 1999); Mac Gill University (Canada, Montreal, 1997-1999).
I was born and studied in the Democratic Republic of Congo that I left in 1991 for graduate studies and work in France and Belgium, doctoral studies in Sweden. I lived and travelled in 28 countries, including a long stay in Japan as a spouse of the Rwanda’s Ambassador and in Sweden studying for my PhD. Other countries, include among others, Cape Verde, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Belgium, Italy, United states, Canada, and Mauritius.
Education
- PhD at the phase of completion in Peace and Development, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- MA Degree in Law at the Académie d’Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Licence (5 years) in Law at the Université Nationale de Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Selected Relevant affiliations
- Member of the National Reference Group, Gender Monitoring Office, Rwanda Advisory Member of the MIGEPROFE National Action Plan Experts Group, Rwanda
- Member of the UN Women Evaluation Reference Group on International Conference for the Great Lakes Region Partnership
- Member of Women Waging Peace, Network, Washington D.C., United States of America
- Member of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) Expert Group on Africa Agenda 2063
- Board Trustee, Africa Leadership Center, King’s College, London School of Economics, England-Kenya
- Trainer of United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Geneva, Switzerland
- Trainer of Rwanda Peace Academy, Nyakinama, Rwanda
- Advisory member of Justice Africa, Open Society, Abuja, Nigeria
Main Languages spoken and written
French, English, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, and Lingala
Others
- Public speaking
- Proficiency with IBM Systems (including: MS Office)
- Interpersonal, analytical, and demonstrable intercultural skills gained through long-term fieldwork and issues of regional diversity
- Grant proposal writing; Project design and management
Main publications
- Gasana, Emmanuel, Butera Jean-Bosco, Byanafashe Deo and Alice Karekezi. (1999). “Rwanda”. In Adebayo Adedeji (ed.). Comprehending and Mastering African Conflicts: The Search for Sustainable
- Urusaro Alice Karekezi, Juridictions Gacaca, lutte contre l’impunité et réconciliation nationale, Cahier numéro 3, Centre de Gestion des conflits, Université Nationale du Rwanda, 2001
- Urusaro Alice Karekezi and colleagues, Localizing Justice: Gacaca Courts in Post-Genocide Rwanda in My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, ed. Eric Stover and Harvey Weinstein, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
- Urusaro Alice Karekezi, Remembering Rwanda 1994 (pp. 40 - 46), CODESRIA Bulletin Vol.2004, numbers 3&4 (2004), The Rwandan Genocide, Africa Review of Books, CODESRIA
- Urusaro Alice Karekezi, African Universities and Social Reconstruction: What Mission and What Strategies? The Case of the Conflict Management Centre of the National University of Rwanda African Sociological Review / Revue Africaine de Sociologie, Vol. 7, No. 2 CODESRIA (2003)
- Urusaro Alice Karekezi, “African Solutions for Peace and Security” “Gacaca in Post Genocide Rwanda: Search for Justice and Reconciliation”, Institute of Peace and Security, University of Addis-Ababa, 2011
Papers presented and publications under way
· Security Sector Reform and Gender mainstreaming in the Rwanda Police
· Does Economic Empowerment Cure Intimate Partner Violence? Responses from Rwanda Women Basket Weavers
- Post-genocide Rwanda: Transcending Classifications through Girinka
- Role of Women on Peace and Security: Rwanda Women between 1995 and 1998
- Women’s initiatives for Peace in the Great Lakes region: 2000 to 2014
- The 1998 Akayesu judgment: Gender Justice for Taba Women?
- Surviving popularly perpetrated genocide: The Rwanda’s University Center for Arts and Drama