This chapter deals with
legal mechanisms for adjudicating rape and sexual violence in ICTR and in
Rwandan jurisdictions.
After having seen the
gravity of the crimes committed in 1994 in Rwandan genocide, the UN Security
Council in its resolution 955 created the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) with its statute to prosecute crimes like genocide, crime against
humanity and violation of article 3 common to the Geneva Convention and
Additional Protocol II. These crimes include rape and sexual violence. The
government of Rwanda adopted legal mechanisms used to punish those crimes based
on cases adjudicated in ICTR for rape and sexual violence, and for preventing
the culture of impunity.
Significantly, as discussed above, both international sexual
crimes and domestic crimes of sexual violence can be prosecuted in national
courts, assuming the amended penal code has to recognize war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide in its provisions.
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