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FAAE Committee Report

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THE AFTERMATH OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE –
A STUDY OF THE CRISIS OF CHILDREN BORN OF RAPE COMMITTED DURING THE GENOCIDE

INTRODUCTION

During the 2nd session of the 41st Parliament, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (the Subcommittee) studied the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, focusing on the crisis facing children born of rape committed during the Rwandan genocide.[1] The Subcommittee heard from witnesses, including genocide survivors now living in Canada and Canadians with experience working in Rwanda. Based on the evidence it received and on publicly available information, the Subcommittee has agreed to report the following findings and recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

This study builds on the Subcommittee’s previous study on the use of sexual violence in conflict and crisis.[2] In that study’s report, titled “A Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Canada’s Role in Taking Action and Ending Impunity,” the Subcommittee noted the effects sexual violence has in “shattering lives, fracturing communities and aggravating the destruction wrought by war, disaster and civil strife.”[3] That report presented a case study on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where rape as a weapon of war was reportedly used to demoralize and terrorize the population, and as a form of ethnic cleansing.[4] At the time, the Subcommittee heard evidence to suggest that instability and ongoing conflict in eastern DRC are directly linked to the influx of Rwandans after the end of the 1994 genocide, including many involved in planning and carrying out the genocide.[5]

The link between the conflict in eastern DRC and the Rwandan genocide, along with the twentieth anniversary of the genocide, provided the Subcommittee with a timely opportunity to deepen its study of conflict-related sexual violence, this time focusing on sexual violence committed during the Rwandan genocide and the effect it continues to have on survivors. The Subcommittee is mindful of the long-term effects of the genocide on the Rwandan people and of the unspeakable suffering that many continue to experience as a result of the trauma they endured. The Subcommittee’s study and this report place special attention on a group that has suffered greatly but has received little attention – the estimated 20,000 or more children born of rape committed during the genocide.[6] It is important to note that the accuracy of this estimate is unclear; as Glenda Pisko-Dubienski, International Director of Operations, Rwanda, HOPEthiopia and a counsellor currently working in Rwanda, told the Subcommittee, the exact numbers of such children may never be known “because the majority of women … [who were raped during the genocide] have still not come forward.”[7] These children, now young adults aged 19 or 20, face numerous challenges as they enter adulthood and seek their place as active social, political and economic participants in Rwandan life.

Throughout its study, the Subcommittee heard evidence regarding the unique challenges that Rwanda has confronted since the end of the genocide.[8] The Subcommittee acknowledges the complexity of the situation facing the Government of Rwanda as it works towards reconciling its people and building its governance system. The Subcommittee aims to draw lessons from Rwanda’s post-genocide experience and bring attention to the plight of survivors of sexual violence committed during the genocide and their children born of rape. The circumstances of these children’s conception have, in many cases, negatively impacted their physical and mental health, as well as that of their mothers, and have resulted in a lack of equal opportunity to access vocational training and post-secondary education.

This report begins by providing a brief overview of the Rwandan genocide and of Rwanda’s recovery in the 20 years following the tragedy. The report then reviews the current situation of genocide survivors and victims, focusing on the particular challenges faced by children born of rape, who are not officially recognized as victims or survivors by the Rwandan government. Finally, the report sets out the Subcommittee’s conclusions and its recommendations to the Government of Canada.

[1]        House of Commons, Subcommittee on International Human Rights [SDIR], Minutes of Proceedings, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 8 April 2014. For clarity, throughout this report the term “children” is used when referring to those persons who were born as a result of rapes committed during the genocide. These persons are now 19 or 20 years old and are adults, not children, under international law. This report is concerned with the situation of children born as a result of “rape committed during the Rwandan genocide,” which includes all children born of rapes that amounted to constituent acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

          Under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as certain acts, including “serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”, which are “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” In the case of Prosecutor v. Akayesu, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR] found that rape was a constituent act of genocide because “[s]exual violence was an integral part of the process of destruction, specifically targeting Tutsi women and specifically contributing to their destruction and to the destruction of the Tutsi group as a whole … destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself.” (Judgement, Trial Chamber, 2 September 1998, paras. 731–732). Under the Statute of the ICTR, rape is also punishable as a crime against humanity when committed as “part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds.” (ICTR Statute, art. 3(g), as well as arts. 3(c),(f),(h) and (i)). Rape is also punishable at the ICTR if it qualifies as a war crime and was committed in a context that has a nexus to the armed conflict that occurred between Rwandan government forces and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (ICTR Statute, art. 4(e)).

[2]        House of Commons, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, A Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Canada’s Role in Taking Action and Ending Impunity, Fourth Report, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, May 2014 [SDIR DRC Sexual Violence Report]. The Subcommittee also adopted a motion on 27 May 2014 condemning the widespread and systematic use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war by all parties to the Syrian conflict (SDIR, Minutes of Proceedings, 27 May 2014).

[3]        SDIR DRC Sexual Violence Report, p. xv.

[4]        Ibid., pp. 21-22.

[5]        Ibid., pp. 13-20.

[6]        SDIR, Evidence, Meeting No. 44, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 20 November 2014 (Jacques Rwirangira, Vice President, Page-Rwanda); SDIR, Evidence, Meeting No. 51, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 27 January 2015 (Sue Montgomery, Journalist, Montreal Gazette). Sue Montgomery, “Rwanda: Families born of rape,” Montreal Gazette, 27 March 2014.

[7]        SDIR, Evidence, Meeting No. 47, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 2 December 2014 (Glenda Pisko-Dubienski, International Director of Operations, Rwanda, HOPEthiopia). See also: SDIR, Evidence, Meeting No. 44, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 20 November 2014 (Jacques Rwirangira).

[8]        SDIR, Evidence, ibid. (Rwirangira); SDIR, Evidence, ibid. (Pisko-Dubienski); SDIR, Evidence, Meeting No. 50, 2nd Session, 41st Parliament, 11 December 2014 (Jean-Bosco Iyakaremye, Member, Humura Association, as an Individual).
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