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Gender-targeted crimes

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Main article: Rape during the Rwandan Genocide

Background on the concept of gender-targeted crimes

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The concept of gender-targeted crimes was formulated to encourage recognition of the fact that such crimes serve as instruments of war, and are not merely a by-product of armed conflict.[1] Gender-targeted crimes include rape, mutilation of reproductive capabilities, and other forms of sexual violence. These crimes serve as weapons and their use as weapons rose mostly during the 1970s and also before.[2] WWII marked the beginnings of the new wars along with the new kinds of attacks—rape, mutilation of the body—as troops invaded enemy territory and typically attacked women first.[3] Towards the end of the twentieth century, a new concept of war had risen, and instead of having a majority of victims as combatants from the battlefield, around eighty percent of the killed or wounded were civilians and twenty percent were combatants.[4] This change corresponds with the rise of intrastate wars (conflict between non-state actors) and the decline of inter-state wars (conflict between states), and it is also linked with changes in the tactics and combating strategies of war.[4] Intrastate wars involve more contact between the belligerents and civilians, and the contact is done through plundering, massacres, and gender-targeted crimes.[4]

Anthropologists of violence have noted that attacks against unarmed civilians usually target the most human features—the face and the reproductive organs.[3] And for women, both attacks are done against them as humans and as child-bearers.[3] Gender-targeted crimes are used as a form of communication between men as proof of victory for one and loss for the other.[1] It is also a part of the issue of nationalism. In the ideologies of nationalism, women symbolize the nation.[1] This symbolism leads to women as main targets for violence especially in a conflict involving nationalism or group identity. In violating the women—particularly the body of the woman, which symbolizes the territory of the nation—the enemies are invading the territory of the nation and showing dominance over the nation.[1] Women were also seen as treasures of war, part of the booty, or a prize of victory to the conquerors.[4]

Gender-targeted crimes are within militaristic or nationalist plans in times of conflict.[1] These crimes are strategic measures and effective instruments that save other weapons.[4] Gender-targeted crimes, especially rape, is a war economy, which is the process of producing and allocating weapons to inflict violence in the most efficient way.[5] Rape allows ethnic cleansing to be carried out more effectively and efficiently. With this ideology, women became more than prizes and became the main target.[4]

Gender-targeted crimes during the genocide

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With the release of the Hutu Ten Commandments in December 1990, Hutu extremists began to target Tutsi women.[6] The first commandment lists the traits of a Hutu traitor and all of the traits involve a type of relationship with a Tutsi woman—whether it be through marriage, friendship, prostitution, etc.[6] The commandments mobilized hatred against Tutsi women for the Hutu extremists.[6]

Through the use of propaganda, the images of Tutsi women were debauched by depicting them as seductresses or spies of the enemy.[7] This form of dehumanization led to the Tutsi women seen as objects that needed to be destroyed in the view of the Hutu extremists.[7] In order to carry out this goal, rape and sexual violence were used as tools and as instruments of war.[7] This mindset goes on to show that the crimes had little "sexual component." Rather, the crimes were committed to humiliate and mentally and physically disable the Tutsi women.[7] The Tutsi women were separated from the Hutu women before the forms of gender-targeted crimes were committed upon them.[8] This separation further supports the idea that rape, sexual violence, and other forms of gender-targeted crimes were acts of genocidal determination.[8]

Rape as weapon of war
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Rape was used as a tool by the Interahamwe, the chief perpetrators, to permanently separate the already conscious heterogeneous population and to drastically exhaust the opposing group.[2] Soldiers of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda and the Rwandan Defence Forces, including the Presidential Guard, and civilians also committed rape against mostly Tutsi women.[9] Although Tutsi women were the main targets, moderate Hutu women were also raped during the genocide.[9] Along with the Hutu moderates, Hutu women who were married to Tutsis and Hutu women who hid Tutsis were targeted.[10] In his 1996 report on Rwanda, the UN Special Rapporteur Rene Degni-Segui stated, "Rape was the rule and its absence the exception."[11] He also noted, "Rape was systematic and was used as a weapon" by the perpetrators of the massacres. With this thought and using methods of force and threat, the genocidaires forced others to stand by while women were raped. A testimonial by a woman of the name Maria Louise Niyobuhungiro recalls seeing local peoples, other generals and Hutu men watching her get raped about 5 times per day. Even when she was kept under watch of a woman, she would give no sympathy or help and furthermore, forced her to farm land in between rapes.[11]

Through public display, rape breaks cultural and social bonds of a national, cultural, or political group.[12] Most of the victims are killed after they are raped, and the survivors face many struggles. The survivors live under struggles such as fear, humiliation, and isolation especially if they are known to be rape survivors or if they become pregnant.[12] According to the New York Times, more than 15,700 women and girls between the ages of thirteen and sixty-five were raped in Rwanda between April 1994 and April 10, 1995, and of that number of women and girls, more than 1,100 gave birth and 5,200 went through abortions.[12] As for the remaining thousand, the women and girls either died, committed suicide, or abandoned the newborn baby.[12] The report only includes the ones tracked, and it is believed many more are unreported. There is a wide range of estimations on the number of rape victims during the genocide. Observers have suggested the number of women raped to be between 200,000 and 500,000.[13] U.N. Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, Rene Degni-Segui, calculated that at least 250,000 and as many as 500,000 women were raped during the genocide.[6] A 2000 report prepared by the Organization of African Unity's International Panel of Eminent Personalities concluded that "we can be certain that almost all females who survived the genocide were direct victims of rape or other sexual violence, or were profoundly affected by it".[14] Although the exact number of women raped by genocidaires is unknown, there is evidence that determines victims of rape made up the vast majority of female survivors in areas such as Kigali after the genocide.[13]

HIV/AIDS as weapon of war
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Many of the survivors were also infected with the HIV virus transmitted from the HIV-infected men who were recruited by the genocidaires.[13] Survivors have testified that the transmission of the HIV virus was a deliberate act by talking about how the men, before they raped them, would say that they were not going to kill them directly but rather give them a slow death from AIDS.[13] It is difficult to provide competent evidence that proves the transmission of AIDS was used as a weapon of war. However, there is preliminary evidence that suggests the transmission was conducted on purpose. Two-thirds of a sample of 1,200 Rwandan genocide widows tested positive for HIV, and the infection rates in rural areas more than doubled after the genocide.[13] However, one important data is not available. There is no data on the number of victims who died of AIDS after 1994 and contracted the disease because of rape during the genocide.[15] The victim is not registered as a casualty, and therefore is not counted in the death toll of the genocide, which is estimated to be 800,000.[15]

Mutilation of the reproductive capabilities as weapon of war
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File:Photographs of Genocide Victims - Genocide Memorial Center - Kigali - Rwanda.jpg
Photographs of genocide victims – Genocide Memorial Center in Kigali

Tutsi women were also targeted with the intent of destroying their reproductive capabilities. Sexual mutilation sometimes occurred after the rape and included mutilation of the vagina with machetes, knives, sharpened sticks, boiling water, and acid.[10] The genocidaires also held women as sex slaves for weeks and sexually mutilated them with sharp sticks or gun barrels.[6] More cases, such as cutting open the womb to kill the unborn child and the pregnant mother, occurred.[10] These acts coincided with the ambition of the Interahamwe and of other Hutu extremists to fully eradicate the Tutsi population.[8] Men were seldom the victims of war rape,[9] but sexual violence against men included mutilation of the genitals, then displayed as trophies in public.[9] Disabling the reproductive capabilities of the women would prevent future generations of the Tutsi population.[6] The Hutu extremists aimed to not only just kill the living Tutsis but also to ultimately destroy the future of the Tutsi population; this reinforced the idea of ethnic cleansing.

Prosecuting the gender-targeted crimes

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The Fourth Geneva Convention in 1949 (under the part: Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War) requires all persons who do not participate in the fighting or who have surrendered to be treated with humanity and to be protected against violence.[4] It also requires women to be especially protected against any attack such as rape and enforced prostitution.[4] However, the United Nations did not address the issue of sexual violence immediately. In early reports of the UN and in the international media, sexual violence was not mentioned or at least, the issue was not the main issue of such reports.[7] After nongovernmental organizations (NGO) human rights advocacy pressed the need for investigation, the United Nations responded by having the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) begin the actions of investigation and prosecution of gender-targeted crimes with the NGOs providing the information on the crimes.[7] The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) under the ICTR created a policy to prosecute rape, sexual violence, and other forms of gender-targeted crimes.[8] It has a Rape and Sexual Violence Section that is headed by a female lawyer-investigator.[8] Female investigators and trial lawyers are used by the OTP to talk to the victims who suffer the emotional injuries of rape and sexual violence.[8] Because of those aspects, the OTP is considered for setting the legal developments in the prosecution crimes of sexual violence in international law. Before the OTP, international criminal law would normally not prosecute crimes of sexual violence.[8] Crimes of rape are difficult to investigate and to prosecute since the injuries are invisible and the victims tend to not speak out.[8] Nevertheless, the OTP has continued to prosecute the ones responsible for gender-targeted crimes and other crimes against humanity.[8]

Prosecutor v. Akayesu

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The OTP went as far to convicting Jean-Paul Akayesu, a mayor of Taba commune in south Rwanda, who ordered acts of sexual violence on Tutsi girls and women in the Taba commune, for rape and sexual violence in the case, Prosecutor v. Akayesu, in 1998.[8] This is significant in that Akayesu is the first person to be convicted for rape and sexual violence by an international court. The case is also the first international war crimes trial to convict a defendant for the crime of genocide.[8] The case is also significant in that it attached criminal liability to high-status and powerful figures such as Akayesu since there were criminal networks that attempted to protect such people who gave out undocumented orders and not carried out the actual crimes.[16] Akayesu was found guilty of crimes against humanity and for forms of sexual violence.[17] Additionally, the case also made the following landmark changes:

  • Recognized sexual violence as a fundamental part of the Rwandan Genocide[17]
  • Identified rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence as separate crimes of crimes against humanity[17]
  • Provided internationally accepted definitions for rape and sexual violence[17]
  • Rape is defined as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature, committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive"[17]
  • Sexual violence is defined as to "[include] rape, is considered to be any act of a sexual nature which is committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive"[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Buss 2009.
  2. ^ a b Hayden 2000.
  3. ^ a b c Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 2000.[page needed]
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Münkler 2005.
  5. ^ Welser, Maria (1993). Am Ende wünschst du dir nur noch den Tod: Die Massenvergewaltigungen im Kreig auf dem Balkan. Munic: Knaur:149.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Rittner 2009, p. 296.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Haffajee 2006.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Obote-Odora 2005.
  9. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference de Brouwer 2005 13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c Nowrojee 1996.
  11. ^ a b Ka Hon Chu, Sandra, and Anne-Marie de Brouwer. "the MEN who KILLED me." Herizons 22, no. 4 (Spring2009 2009): 16. EBSCOhost, MasterFILE Premier p16
  12. ^ a b c d Card 1996; Card 1997.
  13. ^ a b c d e Elbe 2002.
  14. ^ de Brouwer 2005, p. 11.
  15. ^ a b Verwimp 2006.
  16. ^ Phelps 2006.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Askin 1999.
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