Genocide survivors urge Griffith University to cancel scheduled Judi Rever lecture

Genocide survivors' organizations sent a letter on June 18, 2026, to Griffith University's Vice-Chancellor and President requesting the institution sever any association with Canadian author Judi Rever and Association RAQ Inc. The letter was issued on behalf of IBUKA Australia, Survivors Fund (SURF), Never Again Rwanda, the Ishami Foundation, and survivor communities across Africa, Europe, North America, and the wider diaspora.

It cites the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which the organizations state claimed more than one million lives.

Rever is scheduled to deliver a public lecture at the university's Brisbane campus on June 19, 2026. The groups asked Griffith University to cancel or reconsider the event and to conduct a transparent and independent review of any institutional associations, sponsorships, endorsements, or support involving Rever and Association RAQ Inc.

"The Genocide Against the Tutsi has been conclusively established through the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, the findings of independent historians and genocide scholars, and the testimonies of hundreds of thousands of survivors," the letter states.

The organizations further wrote that "for those of us who survived, who lost everything, and who have spent decades rebuilding our lives and communities, genocide denial is not an abstract academic question. " The letter asserts that the Genocide against the Tutsi is an established historical and legal fact and that denialist narratives re-traumatize survivors, embolden perpetrators, and undermine efforts to preserve historical truth.

It urges the university to publicly affirm the historical and legal reality of the genocide and to withdraw any institutional support from individuals or organizations accused of denying, distorting, relativising, or trivialising the genocide.