Without These Women, the Tribunal Cannot Do Anything
The Politics of Witness Testimony on Sexual Violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2223038 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonneke Koomen (0000-0002-1104-4346, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 253-277 |
| Publication date | 2013-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0097-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-6943 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/667200 |
| OpenAlex | W2054313290 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 13 |
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established by the UN Security Council to prosecute high-profile organizers of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including those responsible for systematic sexual violence against Rwandan women. Focusing on tribunal cases involving mass rape, I examine how global justice for Rwandan women is produced through the politics of translation and negotiation. Through in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how unspeakable suffering is articulated through witness testimony, translated into the language of international law, and mediated through the tribunal bureaucracy. I examine encounters between international tribunal workers and Rwandan witnesses, specifically how ICTR staff investigate sexual violence, gather witness statements, and render individuals’ stories fit for public appearance at the tribunal. I also explore the conditions under which witnesses tell their stories in ICTR courtrooms. I argue that international justice at the ICTR depends on Rwandan victims and witnesses. At the same time, however, the project of international justice for women depends on routine social practices that at times marginalize Rwandan women as objects of justice. I contend that these practices may, counterintuitively, reinforce the distance between “local victims” and the expansive ambitions of international justice
Criminal justice · Criminology · Economic Justice · Genocide · Political science · Politics · Sexual violence · Sociology · Tribunal · Witness · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
Affective Archives of the Disappeared
This Patriarchal, Machista and Unequal Culture of Ours”
Translating the Postcolony
Sociolinguistic Challenges of Prosecuting Rape as Genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Our Place Under the Sun’
Insights on victim testimony and transitional justice
Engendering justice
Language Work at International Criminal Courts
The Transitional Justice Gap
Victims and Transitional Justice
International criminal justice and the coloniality of therapeutic governance
Research as witnessing
Liberal Pacification and the Phenomenology of Violence
Does Memory Make Safe in the Wake of Atrocity? Pacification of Violent Pasts, Memory Labor, and Everyday Security
Masculinity and male survivors of wartime sexual violence
Today, I Want to Speak Out the Truth
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,23 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |