Your Justice is too slow: Will the ICTR fail Rwanda's rape victims?

Abstract

This paper offers an examination of international justice from the perspective of rape survivors from the Rwandan genocide, an exposes the squandered opportunities that have characterized sexual violence prosecutions over the past decade at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Throughout the Rwandan genocide, widespread sexual violence, directed predominantly against Tutsi women, occurred in every prefecture. Thousands of women were raped on the streets, at checkpoints, in cultivated plots, in or near government buildings, hospitals, churches, and other places where they sought sanctuary. Women were held individually and in groups as sexual slaves for the purpose of rape. They were raped to death using sharp sticks or other objects. Their dead bodies were often left naked, bloody and spread eagled in public view. The hate propaganda before and during the genocide fuelled the sexual violence by demonizing Tutsi women’s sexuality. Given the evidence and the...