Alvernia University will host genocide awareness events in an effort to help bring an end to the violent act.

Rwandan genocide survivor and author of "Left to Tell," Immaculeé Ilibagiza will visit the school's main campus on Feb. 10 to tell her story of survival. In addition, the university's O'Pake Institute will screen the movie "Hotel Rwanda" on Feb 12, at 6 p.m. Both events will be held in the university's Bernardine Lecture Hall.

Genocide -- defined in 1948 by the United Nations as an act "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," has been committed in many parts of the world over the course of human history.

And while historical acts of genocide, such as the Holocaust in the 1940s, are widely condemned, the practice has continued to devastate groups of people across the globe. But there is hope. Awareness efforts aiming to bring an end to genocide have helped align international law and bring criminals to justice.

In a continuation of awareness efforts, Rwandan genocide survivor Ilibagiza will tell her story of survival.

In 1994, Ilibagiza hid in a 3×4 foot bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. Weighing only 65 pounds after the ordeal, she emerged to discover nearly her entire family, and close to a million of her fellow Rwandans, brutally murdered. Only one of her brothers, who was out of the country during the massacre, survived.

On Feb. 12, Alvernia University's O'Pake Institute for Ethics, Leadership, and Public Service will offer a follow up to Ilibagiza's lecture with a screening of the movie "Hotel Rwanda."

"Hotel Rwanda" is the story of Paul Rusesabagina who hid more than a thousand people in his Rwandan hotel during the 1994 genocide, risking his own life and the lives of his family members. Many people were unaware of the mass killings in Rwanda until this celebrated movie shed light on the tragedy.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan tragedy, an international treaty was signed by 120 countries in 1988, establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute crimes of genocide. Twenty-one cases and nine situations -- including issues in Uganda (2004), Darfur (2005) and Libya (2011) -- have been investigated by the court since its inception.