How this trial set precedent for prosecuting rape as war crime

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, rape was used as a “weapon of war,” the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was told almost 20 years ago. It was said that sexual violence was directed by political and military leaders.

Over the course of 100 days, it’s estimated that 500,000 to one million Rwandans were killed and 250,000 were raped, according to Human Rights Watch.

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Because the intent of the mass violence against women was to wipe out an ethnic group, in this case the Tutsi, it was the first time that mass rape during conflict was prosecuted as a war crime.

A new documentary called The Uncondemned, examines a relatively unknown trial that changed the course of international judicial history.

The trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of a small town in Rwanda, went on to become the first international case to prosecute rape as a war crime and an act of genocide.

“Rape has always been sort of shuffled aside, domestically and internationally. ‘Oh, that is something that just happens, it just happens to women, just happens to women and children.’ It happens to men too, but it just consistently has not been taken seriously,” co-director Michele Mitchell said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Rape has always been sort of shuffled aside, domestically and internationally. 'Oh, that is something that just happens, it just happens to women, just happens to women and children.' It happens to men too, but it just consistently has not been taken seriously," co-director Michele Mitchell said.

Mitchell, who spent three years making the movie, said she understood the gravity of the topic and decided to tell the story as a legal thriller.

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“I can’t tell you how many times I felt like I was going to lose my mind, when I would see these terrible things that people have done to one another,” Mitchell said.

“And I thought, I am not going to let you get away with this. I am going to find a way to tell the story in a way that people have to listen.”

While rape has been recognized as a war crime since 1919, it had never been prosecuted and nobody was sure how to include it in the case.

The film follows a group of underdog lawyers and activists at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in charge of the first genocide to be tried in court.

In Rwanda, while witnesses feared for their lives, three women came forward to testify against Akayesu, for acts he engaged in and oversaw while he was mayor of the town of Taba.

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Their testimonies from 1997, chronicled in the documentary, changed the course of international law.

Mitchell said that the film encourages its viewers to take action, especially now with several wars raging in the Middle East and Africa.

“There is something we can do. Humanity got it right in 1997, we did it then, we can do it again,” Mitchell said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There is something we can do. Humanity got it right in 1997, we did it then, we can do it again," Mitchell said.