Tragedy and triumph: Rwandan women's resilience in the face of sexual violence

Abstract

<p>An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women were raped during the Rwandan genocide which took place over 17 years ago. Many survivors then had to deal with the shunning by their families and communities and diseases such as HIV.</p><p>Little attention has been paid to this situation, as prosecuting rape has not been a priority internationally, let alone at the national level. Nevertheless, there exist a number of promising initiatives in Rwanda that signal a shift in how sexual violence is addressed.</p>

Keywords

• Sexual violence
• international criminal law
• international tribunals
• gacaca
• Rwanda
• human rights
• women
• United Nations
• international criminal court
• victims
• international community