Fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide, The Men Who Killed Me features testimonials from seventeen survivors. Through their narratives and portraits, sixteen women and one man bear witness to the crimes committed against hundreds of thousands of others. Proceeds will go to Mukomeze, a charitable organization established to improve the lives of girls and women who survived sexual violence in the Rwandan genocide.
During the 14th International Symposium of the World Society of Victimology, the photo exhibition “The Men Who Killed Me” will be on display at the World Forum in The Hague (the Netherlands) from May 20th to May 24th, 2012.
Survivors Fund, in partnership with Redress and IBUKA, has been working on developing submissions on draft and current legislation that impacts on the rights of survivors. At present, the Rwanda Parliament is debating a new law on the termination of gacaca courts, which is planned for 18th June. As a final decision on this draft law is pending, it is the focus of their first submission.
A survey has indicated that many women’s rights to inherit property in Rwanda, especially in villages, are violated. The survey was conducted between January and March this year. The findings indicated that women’s right to property is abused in spite of protective laws in place.
In “How Rwanda judged its genocide,” the latest publication in Africa Research Institute’s Counterpoints series, Dr Phil Clark scrutinises the gacaca community courts set up to prosecute crimes committed during the 1994 genocide. In his view, gacaca enabled Rwandans to talk about the genocide, and its impact, on their own terms, in a language that is familiar to them.
May 6 marked the launch of the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict, a collaboration between Nobel Peace Laureates, international advocacy organizations, and groups working at the regional and community levels in conflict, to demand urgent and bold political leadership to prevent rape in conflict, to protect civilians and rape survivors and call for justice for all.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has rejected the appeal of former Rwandan army officer Ildephonse Hategekimana and confirmed his life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity. According to the lower court judgment, Hategekimana ordered the selection, kidnap and murder of Tutsis from a religious convent near his military camp on April 30, 1994. The judges also found that he had encouraged acts of rape.
Women living with HIV have come out to draw the public’s attention on the issue of stigma and other daily challenges they face. Most women living with HIV suffer stigma and discrimination at home, school and at the workplace.
In “Historic Rwandan genocide trial starts Monday in Ottawa,” The Ottawa Citizen reports that Jacques Mungwarere, from Kibuye, Rwanda, will face trial in Ottawa for war crimes. Jury selection for the bilingual trial is soon to begin from a pool of about 1,000 potential jurors.
In an attempt to achieve both justice and reconciliation, gacaca courts were put in place. It brought survivors and perpetrators of the genocide together and served as a kind of collective therapy, where one side confessed their wrongdoings and asked for forgiveness, while the other was able to find the remains of their loved ones, bury them with dignity and experience closure.
In 1998, the government established the Fund for Genocide Survivors (FARG) to channel financial support and otherwise to survivors. Since 1998, the fund has spent over Rwf130 billion on survivors’ welfare with 75 per cent spent on education. It is now conducting an impact assessment study to determine how effective the FARG has been since its establishment.
