Rwanda

Women's participation in the Rwandan genocide: mothers or monsters?

Citation:

Hogg, Nicole. 2010. “Women’s Participation in the Rwandan Genocide: Mothers or Monsters?” International Review of the Red Cross 92 (877): 69–102.

Author: Nicole Hogg

Abstract:

The participation of women in the 1994 Rwandan genocide should be considered in the context of gender relations in pre-genocide Rwandan society. Many 'ordinary' women were involved in the genocide but, overall, committed significantly fewer acts of overt violence than men. Owing to the indirect nature of women's crimes, combined with male 'chivalry', women may be under-represented among those pursued for genocide related crimes, despite the broad conception of complicity in Rwanda's Gacaca Law. Women in leadership positions played a particularly important role in the genocide, and gendered imagery, including of the 'evil woman' or 'monster', is often at play in their encounters with the law.

Topics: Gender, Women, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Impunity Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2010

'SMART’ Photovoice Agricultural Consultation: Increasing Rwandan Women Farmers’ Active Participation in Development.

Citation:

Gervais, Myriam, and Lysanne Rivard. 2013. “‘SMART’ Photovoice Agricultural Consultation: Increasing Rwandan Women Farmers’ Active Participation in Development.” Development in Practice 23 (4): 496–510. 

Authors: Myriam Gervais, Lysanne Rivard

Abstract:

Through two case studies, this paper evaluates the value of the feminist visual methodology Photovoice as an interactive consultation tool with rural Rwandan women working in agriculture. This exploratory study suggests that it is possible, through an adapted Photovoice process, to engage and empower women in the production of information about what is most relevant to them, and reach and engage practitioners and officials through an exhibition of participants' photographs and captions. This confirmation of Photovoice's applicability with rural women in the generation of information that captures the attention of stakeholders demonstrates its potential for reproducibility in other development contexts. 

Keywords: gender and diversity, technology, environment, agriculture, Sub-Saharan Africa, methods

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Environment, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Information & Communication Technologies, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2013

Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Citation:

Schnabel, Albrecht and Amara Tabyshalieva, eds. 2012. Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. Tokyo and New York: United Nations University Press.

Authors: Amara Tabyshalieva, Albrecht Schnabel

Abstract:

Women are among the most competent, yet marginalized, unnoticed and underutilized actors in efforts to rebuild war-torn societies. Opportunities for sustainable peacebuilding are lost - and sustainable peace is at risk - when significant stakeholders in a society's future peace and conflict architecture are excluded from efforts to heal the wounds of war and build a new society and a new state. The contributors to this book draw on comparative case and country studies from post-conflict contexts in different parts of world to offer their insights into frameworks for understanding women as both victims and peacebuilders, to trace the road that women take from victimhood to empowerment and to highlight the essential partnerships between women and children and how they contribute to peace. The authors examine the roles of women in political and security institutions.

Annotation:

Content:

1 Forgone opportunities: The marginalization of women’s contributions to post-conflict peacebuilding; Albrecht Schnabel and Anara Tabyshalieva

2 Frameworks for understanding women as victims and peacebuilders; Lisa Schirch

Part I: From victimhood to empowerment: Patterns and changes

3 Mass crimes and resilience of women: A cross-national perspective;  Krishna Kumar

4 Victimization, empowerment and the impact of UN peacekeeping missions on women and children: Lessons from Cambodia and Timor-Leste; Sumie Nakaya

5 Frontline peacebuilding: Women’s reconstruction initiatives in Burundi;  Rose M. Kadende-Kaiser

Part II: Women and children: Essential partnership of survival and peace.

6 Women and children in the post-Cold War Balkans: Concerns and responses; Constantine P. Danopoulos, Konstantinos S. Skandalis and Zlatko Isakovic

7 Emerging from poverty as champions of change: Women and children in post-war Tajikistan; Svetlana Sharipova and Hermine De Soto

8 Young mothers as agents of peacebuilding: Lessons from an early childcare and development project in Macedonia; Deborah Davis

Part III: Putting good intentions into practice: National and global efforts to right past wrongs.

9 Gender and transitional justice: Experiences from South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone; Lyn S. Graybill

10 Empowering women to promote peace and security: From the global to the local – Securing and implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325; Ancil Adrian-Paul

Part IV: Deconstructing victimhood: Women in political and security institutions.

11 State-building or survival in conflict and post-conflict situations? A peacebuilding perspective on Palestinian women’s contributions to ending the Israeli occupation;  Vanessa Farr

12 Women’s participation in political decision-making and recovery processes in post-conflict Lebanon; Kari H. Karamé

13 Combating stereotypes: Female security personnel in post-conflict contexts; Kristin Valasek

Conclusion

14 Defying victimhood: Women as activists and peacebuilders; Anara Tabyshalieva and Albrecht Schnabel

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Political Economies, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Oceania Countries: Burundi, Lebanon, Macedonia, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste

Year: 2012

'Ndabaga' Folktale Revisited: (De)constructing Masculinity in the Post-Genocide Rwandan Society

Citation:

Gallimore, Rangira Béa. 2010. “‘Ndabaga’ Folktale Revisited: (De)constructing Masculinity in the Post-Genocide Rwandan Society.” In Masculinities in African Literary and Cultural Texts, edited by Helen Nabasuta Mugambi and Tuzyline Jita Allan. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

 

Author: Rangira Béa Gallimore

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Genocide, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2010

Women's Experiences of Gender Equality Laws in Rural Rwanda: the Case of Kamonyi District.

Citation:

Kagaba, Mediatrice. 2015. “Women’s Experiences of Gender Equality Laws in Rural Rwanda: The Case of Kamonyi District.” Journal of Eastern African Studies 9 (4): 574–92.

Author: Mediatrice Kagaba

Abstract:

This article analyses how women in the rural district of Kamonyi experience gender equality laws and policies in their everyday lives. Traditional Rwandan society had a patriarchal social structure that accepted unequal power relations between men and women. The 2003 new constitution, adopted after the 1994 Tutsi genocide, recognizes the importance of gender equality and includes specific legal provisions to ensure women's equal protection under the law. Drawing on focus group discussions with women in Kamonyi, it emerges that women's experiences are mixed with regard to the new laws: they enjoy the right of access to family assets, inheritance, and work opportunities; yet they also experience a “gender dilemma” of whether to exercise rights enshrined in the constitution even though that may lead to marital difficulties in their households.

Keywords: Rwanda, women's rights, empowerment, gender equality

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2015

Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990-2001): Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War

Citation:

Bumet, Jennie E. 2012. “Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990–2001): Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War.” African Studies Review 55 (2): 97–118. doi:10.1353/arw.2012.0034.

 

Author: Jennie E. Bumet

Abstract:

This article situates the sexual violence associated with the Rwandan civil war and 1994 genocide within a local cultural history and political economy in which institutionalized gender violence shaped the choices of Rwandan women and girls. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that Western notions of sexual consent are not applicable to a culture in which colonialism, government policy, war, and scarcity of resources have limited women's access to land ownership, economic security, and other means of survival. It examines emic cultural models of sexual consent and female sexual agency and proposes that sexual slavery, forced marriage, prostitution, transactional sex, nonmarital sex, informal marriage or cohabitation, and customary (bridewealth) marriages exist on a continuum on which female sexual agency becomes more and more constrained by material circumstance. Even when women's choices are limited, women still exercise their agency to survive. Conflating all forms of sex in conflict zones under the rubric of harm undermines women's and children's rights because it reinforces gendered hierarchies and diverts attention from the structural conditions of poverty in postconflict societies.

Topics: Gender, Women, Girls, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Livelihoods, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2012

Women's Land Rights in the Context of the Land Tenure Reform in Rwanda – the Experiences of Policy Implementers

Citation:

Bayisenge, Jeannette, Staffan Höjer, and Margareta Espling. 2015. “Women’s Land Rights in the Context of the Land Tenure Reform in Rwanda – the Experiences of Policy Implementers.” Journal of Eastern African Studies 9 (1): 74–90. doi:10.1080/17531055.2014.985496.

Authors: Jeannette Bayisenge, Staffan Höjer, Margareta Espling

Abstract:

Over the last decade, many international organisations such as the World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID) and United States Agency for International Development have expanded their programmes on land tenure reforms in developing countries. Throughout this process, women's exclusion from land ownership has been increasingly questioned and legal reforms have been suggested as one solution. The aim of this paper is to explore and analyse the experiences of implementers of land registration and titling vis-a-vis women's land rights in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with administrative staff at different levels involved in the programme. From the implementers' experiences, the findings show that the land certificate does not necessarily guarantee women decision-making over land, but also that women show increased awareness of land issues, which has led to land conflicts involving women. Secondly, the challenges encountered, such as polygamy, inheritance and ingaragazi issues, as well as men's unwillingness to register their marriages, are related to men's customary rights to land and to deeply embedded socio-cultural norms. The implementers' experiences and the encountered challenges during the reform process are framed by the values of a patriarchal society in which the supremacy of men over women is still strong. This leads to a ‘theory/practice dilemma’ where laws and policies that look good on paper are not necessarily easily implemented and where the intentions of laws are not necessarily logic to the local-level implementers.

Keywords: Rwanda, land tenure reform, land rights, women, policy implementation, land registration

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2015

Peace Accords and the Adoption of Electoral Quotas for Women in the Developing World

Citation:

Anderson, Miriam J., and Liam Swiss. 2014. “Peace Accords and the Adoption of Electoral Quotas for Women in the Developing World, 1990–2006.” Politics & Gender 10 (01): 33–61. doi:10.1017/S1743923X13000536.

Authors: Miriam J. Anderson, Liam Swiss

Abstract:

The high percentage of women in Rwanda's parliament is well known. At 64%, it scores far above the world average of about 22% (IPU 2013). Rather than an anomaly, Rwanda is representative of many postconflict developing countries that feature women's political representation at above-average levels. A frequently identified correlate of this heightened representation has been the presence of electoral quotas for women (Bush 2011; Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012; Paxton, Hughes, and Painter 2010). More generally, the role of societal rupture and transitions from conflict to peace or from authoritarianism to democracy have been a focus of gender and politics research in recent years (Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012; Hughes 2007; 2009; Hughes and Paxton 2007; Viterna and Fallon 2008). Within such transitions, the role of women's participation has been identified as a key determinant of more beneficial posttransition outcomes for women (Viterna and Fallon 2008). Peace processes and the accords that they yield represent a mechanism through which transition and women's rights become linked and theoretically hold the potential to shape postconflict societies. However, the link between women's involvement in peace processes and the subsequent adoption of electoral quotas has not been explored. In this article, we seek to answer the question: What is the relationship between postconflict transition, peace processes, and quota adoption? To this end, we examine the role played by peace accords and, more specifically, accords with a focus on women's rights in leading countries to adopt electoral quotas for women.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peace Processes, Political Participation, Post-Conflict Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2014

Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative

Citation:

Mibenge, Chiseche Salome. 2013. Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press. 

Author: Chiseche Salome Mibenge

Abstract:

Before the twenty-first century, there was little legal precedent for the prosecution of sexual violence as a war crime. Now, international tribunals have the potential to help make sense of political violence against both men and women; they have the power to uphold victims' claims and to convict the leaders and choreographers of systematic atrocity. However, by privileging certain accounts of violence over others, tribunals more often confirm outmoded gender norms, consigning women to permanent rape victim status.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Criminal Law, International Tribunals & Special Courts, TRCs, Post-Conflict, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Rwanda, Sierra Leone

Year: 2013

Trying International Crimes on Local Lawns: The Adjudication of Genocide Sexual Violence Crimes in Rwanda's Gacaca Courts

Citation:

Amick, Emily. 2011. “Trying International Crimes on Local Lawns: The Adjudication of Genocide Sexual Violence Crimes in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts.” Columbia Journal of Gender & Law 20 (2). http://cjgl.cdrs.columbia.edu/article/trying-international-crimes-on-local-lawns-the-adjudication-of-genocide-sexual-violence-crimes-in-rwandas-gacaca-courts/.

Author: Emily Amick

Abstract:

During the Rwandan genocide sexual violence was used as a weapon of war to ravage a people. Women were tortured psychologically, physically and emotionally. For some women the “dark carnival” of the genocide has not ended. Living side by sidewith the men who committed violence against them, they must confront their past every day. This Article explores how, post-genocide, the country has come to adjudicate these crimes in gacaca. Gacaca is a unique method of transitional justice, one that calls upon traditional roots, bringing community members together to find the truth of what happened during the genocide and punish those who perpetrated violence. One scholar calls gacaca, “one of the boldest and most original ‘legal-social’ experiments ever attempted in the field of transitional justice.” Others, however, criticize gacaca for the impunity it grants to crimes committed by the current ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and its lack of due process and nonconformance to international fair trial processes. Most authors find that, for cases of sexual violence, gacaca is a wholly unsuitable forum.

Topics: Gender, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Organizations, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Reparations, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2011

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Rwanda