Dafroza Gauthier, a survivor of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide who spent decades helping identify suspects living in France, has died of cancer at 72. With her French husband, Alain Gauthier, she founded the Collective of Civil Plaintiffs for Rwanda, which brought civil cases against dozens of people accused of taking part in the genocide.
The couple’s investigations helped send several suspects to trial in France under universal jurisdiction. Seven were ultimately handed final convictions, receiving prison terms ranging from 14 years to life. Born into a Tutsi family in southern Rwanda, Gauthier encountered ethnic violence from an early age and lost much of her family during the genocide, including her mother, who was killed at a church in Kigali.
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After attending a genocide trial in Belgium in 2001, Gauthier and her husband began systematically investigating alleged perpetrators who had settled in France. Their work played a role in the 2014 conviction of Pascal Simbikangwa, a former Rwandan intelligence chief sentenced to 25 years for genocide and crimes against humanity. Gauthier repeatedly said she was seeking justice, not revenge, and pursued that mission until her death.
