Wartime Sexual Violence
- During the Rwandan genocide, rape was systematically used as a weapon of war.
- Tens of thousands of women and girls were subjected to sexual violence.
- Estimates suggest between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 100 days of genocide.
Sexual Violence and International Law
- Before Rwanda and Kosovo
- Sexual violence was usually categorized under “torture” or “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”
- It was not formally recognized as a distinct crime.
- Landmark Shift in the 1990s
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) established sexual violence as a crime in its own right.
- These rulings confirmed sexual violence as both a tool of genocide and a war crime, shaping modern international criminal law.
- Purpose and Strategy
- Rape was used as a deliberate tactic to humiliate, terrorize, and attempt the extermination of the Tutsi population.
- Women were regarded as bearers of cultural identity, so targeting them aimed to break down family structures and community continuity.
- Symbolic and Social Impact
- Perpetrators attacked women as the “mothers” of the community, disrupting lineage and social cohesion.
- This had devastating consequences for post-genocide recovery and reconciliation.
- Survivor testimony: “They targeted us not just to kill our bodies, but to erase our dignity and our people’s future.” (Anne Marie de Brower, 2005).
- Rape as Biological Warfare
- Many perpetrators were known or later found to be HIV-positive.
- Testimonies and ICTR records show that attackers deliberately infected women to ensure long-term destruction of the Tutsi population.
- Gang Rape and Organized Attacks
- The ICTR documented cases of prisoners convicted of violent crimes being released to participate in mass gang rapes.
