‘A very sensitive Rwandan woman’: sexual violence, history, and gendered narratives in the trial of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda, 2001-2011

Abstract

In 2011, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the former Rwandan Minister of Family and Women’s Development, became the first woman convicted of genocide in an international criminal trial, and the first convicted of rape as a crime against humanity. Nyiramasuhuko’s case complicates portrayals of Rwandan women as peace-loving victims of violence, a representation often used to explain women’s post-genocide socio-political gains. Drawing on archival records from her trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, this article explores how African history and legal-historical perspectives are necessary to understand this landmark trial and judgment, in particular the gendered narratives that permeate the case and its coverage. Situating Nyiramasuhuko’s case within an historical moment when gendered violence was emerging as an object of international concern, and within the Rwandan social, historical, and cultural milieu, it argues that Nyiramasuhuko’s self-presentation, as well as witness testimonies, are suffused with gendered narratives. Nyiramasuhuko rendered herself as a wife and mother, claiming that these roles precluded her participation in sexualised violence. Her detractors, in contrast, emphasised her cruelty and ambition, drawing on historical tropes about powerful women. Historicising the case in local and international perspectives is essential for understanding how gender is mobilised in accounts of genocidal sexual violence.