“Each day we were raped in full view of everyone”

Mass sexual violence during the genocide in Rwanda

Abstract

In 1994 the number of rapes committed against women was around 250,000 during the Rwandan genocide. Although sexual violence is often brought about in the time of conflicts, it would cause distortion to identify the hundreds of thousands of cases of rape and other form of sexual violence only as a war tool in Rwanda.
First, the paper attempts to highlight the probable causal relationship between sexual violence and economic, social and other cultural factors. Second, it offers a structured summary of details and patterns of sexual violence in order to articulate the difficulties of coping with the trauma. Finally, the paper provides an overview of the two decades after the genocide: how the government rebuilds the country and society at large; how it helps empower women and what results they achieved, also putting an emphasis on enduring issues and disputes.