"You abandoned us and now you come back to ask questions": the testimonies of survivors of sexual violence in the Rwandan genocide

• Grant number: 23/04931-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach
• Grantee: Mariana Rodrigues de Vita
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this research is to analyze the incidence of sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war in the genocide of Rwanda, in 1994, through the documentation made available by the Unified Court Records, which makes accessible the testimonies produced during the trials at the International Criminal Court for Rwanda. (TPIR). The testimonies are transcriptions of speeches given in court, and as judicial evidence, centered on objective and factual responses; however, they constitute a sensitive testimony of dramatic events and reveal the concern and reaction of the international community regarding crimes of a sexual nature. The assumptions of the current investigation are part of a scientific initiation research entitled 'We gonna let you live so you could die of sadness': rape as a weapon of war in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, financed by FAPESP (2020-2021) . In this, by consulting the official documentation of UN bodies, it was found that international powers and the UN in particular failed to curb genocide and were silent with sexually abused women. The current proposal intends to expand the documentation towards the ICTR records and, in addition to verifying the previously mentioned hypothesis, that rape, as an instrument of genocide, did not receive enough legal and international attention. The aim is to contribute to overcoming the social and historiographical silence that affects these narratives, facts and historical characters, considering it as one more form of violence against lives in the Global South; and also make part of this material available for didactic purposes, considering the importance of dealing with "delicate" themes in educational training from a civic perspective.