Biography 
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 took the lives of almost a million people and made refugees of two million. Judith Kanakuze, currently a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Rwandan Parliament, was the only civil society representative and one of only three women on the twelve-member Judicial and Constitutional Commission in July of 2000. As a gender expert and representative of the women’s movement in Rwanda, on this Commission Ms. Kanakuze ensured the ratification of a remarkably gender-sensitive constitution. From 1992 to 1994, Ms. Kanakuze was the director of Research and Study and later executive director at Duterimbere, a nonprofit organization that promotes women entrepreneurs and whose staff and board are made up of both Hutu and Tutsi women. Ms. Kanakuze has been a consultant at the Ministry of Gender and the Promotion of Women. From June 1998 to December 2000, she worked with the civil society organization, Collectif des Consultantes du Réseau des Femmes Oeuvrant pour le Développement Rural (Network of Women Working for Rural Development), first as the director of consulting and then as national coordinator. She is a member of the Forum of Parliamentary Women of Rwanda. Ms. Kanakuze has led teams in conflict management; trained in mediation, facilitation, and negotiation for peace-building processes in rooted conflict; and done mediation and conflict transformation in civil society groups. (5.2007)