Facilitating Courage: Building Evidence of Supportive Factors, Policies and Practices for Survivors of Rape during Genocide

It is estimated that 250,000-500,000 Rwandan women were raped in the 1994 genocide. Despite the subsequent progress in finding organizers guilty of rape as a war crime and act of genocide for the first time in the history of international law, very little is known about the women survivors of these rapes who decided to testify in transitional court systems.  No “evidence-based” practice exists for the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), local advocacy groups, and human rights lawyers who work with survivors of sexual violence who are either being asked to testify, or choose to come forward to these court and reconciliation systems.

The results of this exploratory mixed methods study begin filling that void by asking two key questions: what factors in Rwandan women’s lives related to their decision to take their cases of sexual violence to the transitional courts, and what suggestions do rape survivors have to improve these courts for survivors of sexual violence? Income, education levels, social support, involvement with women’s organizations, sharing one’s story of rape in an all-women’s group, and opinions about the courts were explored as factors. It was hypothesized that all of these factors might have some relationship to the decision to take or not to take the cases to the courts, and that the women might wish to have the courts provide greater access to reparations and to services for individuals who testify and their children.

This study surveyed 106 women in three providences who experienced rape during the 1994 genocide.  Follow-up interviews were conducted with 19 women, in which they were specifically asked to provide suggestions to improve the transitional court system for those who have suffered sexual violence.  A purposeful convenience sample was gained through women’s meetings in communities throughout three providences. Translators forward and back-translated the survey to the local language, Kinyarwanda, and female research assistants read all surveys because of high rates of illiteracy.  All interviews were conducted in Kinyarwanda.  Logistic regression models in SPSS tested the relationship between the individual factors and the decision to take or not to take a case of rape to the transitional courts using the quantitative data (n=106).  Suggestions for improving the courts from the qualitative data (n=19) were coded and analyzed using DeDoose mixed methods and qualitative software.

Several factors do appear to have strong relationships to decisions to take cases to court: sharing one’s story of rape in an all-women’s group, having a number of positive feelings about going to the courts, and having more positive feelings than fears of reprisal and ostracism.  The women suggested greater attention to reparations, and greater access to economic development opportunities. The results of this exploratory study indicate meaningful possibilities for how NGOs might interact with survivors of sexual violence by encouraging more women’s groups, and training group leaders in how to facilitate discussions that intentionally discuss sexual violence. Courts can reach out to women survivors with information on the courts, and insure reparations are given to the women who come forward.