Rwanda

Citation:

Gerecke, Megan. 2009. “Explaining Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations: Preliminary Findings from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.” Paper presented at the 50th Annual Conference of the International Studies Association, New York, February 15-18.

Author: Megan Gerecke

Abstract:

Theories of sexual violence are often derived from single case studies and their applicability to other conflicts rarely tested. Applying these theories comparatively has the potential to reveal gaps, overlaps and silences within them. In this vein, this study tests four theories of sexual violence across three well-documented cases – those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. The theories addressed here focus on (1) male desire, opportunity and social breakdown, (2) gender inequality and identities, (3) gender and ethnicity, and (4) military organization and structure. This study casts doubt on gender inequalities’ previously undisputed centrality, as well as revealing important unexplained similarities in the patterns and forms of sexual violence. While the exceptional elements of ethnic sexual violence are explained efficiently by the traditional theory of gender and ethnicity, the similarities noted between ethnic and non-ethnic sexual violence suggest that more attention to military organization and structure is needed. Indeed, as is shown, faulty selection and inadequate unit-level group cohesion may have had an important role in facilitating sexual violence in these, and possibly other, cases.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Rwanda, Sierra Leone

Year: 2009

Citation:

Gottschall, Jonathan. 2004. “Explaining Wartime Rape.” Journal of Sex Research 41 (2): 129–36. doi:10.1080/00224490409552221.

Author: Jonathan Gottschall

Abstract:

In the years since the first reports of mass rapes in the Yugoslavian wars of secession and the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, feminist activists and scholars, human rights organizations, journalists, and social scientists have dedicated unprecedented efforts to document, explain, and seek solutions for the phenomenon of wartime rape. While contributors to this literature agree on much, there is no consensus on causal factors. This paper provides a brief overview of the literature on wartime rape in historical and ethnographical societies and a critical analysis of the four leading explanations for its root causes: the feminist theory, the cultural pathology theory, the strategic rape theory, and the biosocial theory. The paper concludes that the biosocial theory is the only one capable of bringing all the phenomena associated with wartime rape into a single explanatory context.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Secessionist Wars, Gender, Genocide, Justice, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2004

Citation:

Daly, Erin. 2002. “Between Punitive and Reconstructive Justice: The Gacaca Courts in Rwanda.” New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 34 (2): 355-96.

Author: Erin Daly

Abstract:

In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which almost a million people were killed by their fellow citizens within 3 months, the country was faced with the colossal task of bringing to justice hundreds of thousands of perpetrators while at the same time trying to rebuild the communities in which both the victims and the perpetrators had lived. This article argues that the regime of gacaca courts, though flawed in many ways, particularly from a western perspective, does nonetheless offer the potential for helping the communities within Rwanda to transform themselves. The form and structure of gacaca are analyzed in this article, and their transformative potential is evaluated.

Keywords: restorative justice, Rwanda, human rights, gacaca courts, genocide

Topics: Genocide, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2002

Citation:

El-Bushra, Judy. 2000. “Transforming Conflict: Some Thoughts on a Gendered Understanding of Conflict Processes.” In States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance, edited by Susie Jacobs, Ruth Jacobson, and Jennifer Marchbank. London: Zed Books.

Author: Judy El-Bushra

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Development, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Peace Processes Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda

Year: 2000

Citation:

Park, Jennifer. 2007. “Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War in International Humanitarian Law.” International Public Policy Review 3 (1): 13–18.

Author: Jennifer Park

Abstract:

Sexual violence as a weapon of war targets individuals not only on the basis of group membership, but also uniquely on the basis of gender. Despite substantial increases in occurrence during warfare, international and national mechanisms have largely neglected the impact of sexual violence in hindering peace and obscuring perceptions of security among population groups. The failure to clearly recognise sexual violence as a weapon of war has resulted in impunity, in turn affecting the likelihood of future outbreaks of conflict. To prevent further negligence, the establishments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have made notable progress toward reconceptualising sexual violence as a weapon of war. This paper highlights and evaluates the innovations made by the ICTY and the ICTR towards recognising the issue of sexual violence as a threat to international peace and security in international law.

Topics: International Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Security, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2007

Citation:

Feliciati, Clara Chapdelaine. 2006. “Restorative Justice for the Girl Child in Post-Conflict Rwanda.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 7 (4): 14–35.

Author: Clara Chapdelaine Feliciati

Abstract:

The girl child suffers from both sexism and “childism” for she is at the intersection of women’s rights and children’s rights. The question of her fate in post-conflict Rwanda is particularly crucial for during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, she suffered egregious sexual violence based on gender regardless of her age. Not only were two-year old girls raped, but there was a clear intention to make women and girls suffer differently from men and boys: while the latter were killed rapidly with a single shot or machete stroke, girl children and women were mutilated, tortured and left to die slowly. However, to focus solely on the sexual abuse of girl children in conflict hinders other aspects of the discrimination they undergo in numerous areas of their daily lives. Our hypothesis is that the sexual violence suffered by girl children during the genocide can be seen as emblematic of a general pattern of sexual discrimination in Rwandan society which was unleashed by the exacerbation of the ethnic conflict. Based on this premise, Rwanda will be studied as a case in point by defining the girl child in that specific context and suggesting a restorative approach to her fate. First, this article will study the status of the girl child in international law. Second, it will examine her status in Rwanda before and during the genocide, as well as in the transitional or post-conflict society she dwells in today. Finally, this article will provide recommendations for her healing through a “childered” and gendered approach to recovery by establishing a restorative paradigm in terms of safety, remembrance, and reconnection.

Keywords: girl child, Rwanda, restorative justice

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, Justice, Reparations, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2006

Citation:

Wood, Stephanie K. 2004. “A Woman Scorned for the ‘Least Condemned’ War Crime: Precedent and Problems with Prosecuting Rape as a Serious War Crime in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.” Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law 13: 274–327.

Author: Stephanie K. Wood

Abstract:

The woman scorned is Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Rwanda's Former Minister for Women's Affairs, who is currently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR") for allegedly using her official capacity to incite Hutus to rape thousands of female Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. (1) She is the first woman to be charged with rape as a crime against humanity by an international tribunal. (2) The 1994 Rwanda Genocide had devastating effects on the female population in the country due to the systematic gender-based violence endorsed and carried out by government officials. (3) Almost one million people were killed in one hundred days (4) and, according to some reports, nearly all female survivors--including many young girls (5)--were raped and sexually brutalized. (6) While these crimes are neither historically nor geographically unique to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, (7) the ICTR's efforts in prosecuting gender-based violence as crimes against humanity and tools of genocide have been unprecedented. (8) Rape warfare, although common throughout history, has traditionally been the least condemned war crime. Although not without criticism, (9) the ICTR shattered historical ambivalence toward gender-based violence by indicting and prosecuting Rwandan officials who countenanced rape as a method of warfare during the genocide. (10) The first step in shattering this ambivalence occurred with the prosecution of Jean Paul Akayesu, (11) a mayor in the Taba Commune, (12) who also sanctioned massive sexual violence against Tutsi women. With the Prosecutor v. Akayesu (13) decision, the ICTR became the first international war crimes tribunal to convict an official for genocide and to declare that rape could constitute genocide. (14) Pressure from women's groups, coupled with cooperation and support coming from within the ICTR, led to the watershed decision linking sexual violence to the genocide in Rwanda. (15) However, the ICTR's handling of the Akayesu and Nyiramasuhuko cases also reveal a failure to adequately investigate and indict the gender-based violence sanctioned by the government during the genocide before trial, deficiencies in handling witnesses during the investigation and trial stages, and delays affecting the delivery of justice to survivors. These deficiencies must be addressed and corrected in order to maintain the Tribunal's legitimacy, protect women's human rights, and build upon the jurisprudence condemning rape warfare as genocide. An assessment of the ICTR's deficiencies is especially timely given that the tenth anniversary of the genocide occurred in April 2004. Although the Akayesu conviction and the Nyiramasuhuko prosecution have significant precedential value, the problems encountered by the ICTR in indicting and prosecuting gender-based violence should be lessons for future prosecutions in the international community. (16) Recognition of rape as a serious war crime represents only the first step in creating the deterrent necessary to combat future impunity. Assessing the past in order to improve the effectiveness of future prosecutions for rape warfare is imperative as women of all ages, races, colors, creeds, and ethnicities continue to be raped during armed conflicts. (17) Effective prosecutions will lead to more convictions, which will in turn translate into a legal vindication of women's human rights in the international community. (18) This article argues that while the ICTR has established an important precedent in prosecuting gender-based violence as crimes against humanity and tools of genocide, its deficiencies illustrate the continued straggle to enforce international norms protecting women from violence during armed conflict. (19) Without improvements in three specific areas, the potency of the ICTR's groundbreaking decisions will become diluted and less likely to be applied by other legal bodies, to further the objective of enforcing women's human rights, and to lead to greater deterrence of gender-based violence. Part II of this article discusses the gender-based violence that occurred during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and addresses the historic ambivalence toward prosecuting rape as a war crime or crime against humanity. This ambivalence demonstrates a lack of implementation and enforcement of the legal norms protecting women's human rights. (20) Part III emphasizes the significance of the first international conviction of rape as a condemnable war crime, while highlighting the need for improvements in order to ensure more effective prosecution of gender-based violence. The cases of two prominent Rwandan officials--Akayesu and Nyiramasuhuko--are discussed in this regard. Part III also explains how the ICTR's progressive precedent on sexual violence is being tarnished by the Tribunal's continuing failure to adequately indict perpetrators for commission of gender-based crimes, a widening divide between the need for legal justice and survivors' interests, and excessive delays that are diluting the credibility of legal justice as a deterrent. Part IV concludes with three major recommendations to the ICTR directed at improving the Tribunal's prosecution of gender-based violence and preserving its legitimacy as a source of international condemnation and deterrence. II. BACKGROUND While violence against women occurs every day worldwide, (21) women are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence (22) during armed conflict. (23) International norms (24) protect women from gender-based violence in theory, (25) but adequate norm development requires implementation and enforcement by the international community in order to transform theory into practice. (26)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2004

Citation:

Nowrojee, Binaifer. 1996. Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and Its Aftermath. United States: Human Rights Watch.

Author: Binaifer Nowrojee

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Genocide, Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma, International Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 1996

Citation:

Joseph, Joshua. 2007. "Rethinking Yamashita: Holding Military Leaders Accountable for Wartime Rape." Women's Rights Law Reporter 28 (2/3): 107-25.

Author: Joshua Joesph

Abstract:

This note explores the current controversy over the proper international standard for punishing commanders whose subordinates have committed rape, and examines the interplay between the nature of rape, the underlying theories of command responsibility, and an international legal system that has failed to produce fruitful results. The note contends that the continued occurrence of rape in times of war results in large part from the international community’s reluctance to punish high-level military officials who neither physically perpetrated the crime, were not present at the crime scene, and did not necessarily order rape.

The note proposes a slight expansion of the “knowledge presumption” standard used by early courts, whereby general, historical knowledge of rape would satisfy the mens rea requirement of command responsibility. Such a standard would make it easier to prosecute wartime military leaders. In addition, the note will propose a series of measures that military officials can use to both deter the commission of rape by subordinates and rebut the knowledge presumption. Finally, the note examines how the International Criminal Court could use such a standard to punish commanders for the atrocities currently under investigation in Darfur.

The note is particularly relevant and timely because widespread mass rape has been reported in the region of Darfur and is currently under investigation by ICC prosecutors. It is likely that the ICC will hear many of the cases involved in this dispute in the near future. Many of these cases will force the Court to examine its standard for punishing commanders whose subordinates have engaged in rape crimes.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, Rwanda

Year: 2007