THE internship
Students for development program
This internship has been funded by Students for Development (SFD)
program, administered by the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
(AUCC). The program is intended to mobilize Canadian university
students to work alongside developing country partner organizations
active in the promotion of good governance. Good governance is seen as
a cornerstone of Canada’s international development efforts
and a fundamental prerequisite for attaining the UN’s
Millenium Development Goals. As part of this, CIDA has a particular
interest in supporting research projects that consider 5 pillars of
good governance, including: democratization, human rights, the rule of
law, public sector institution capacity building, and conflict
prevention, peacebuilding and security-sector reform. Cross-cutting
these 5 pillars, is the subject of gender equality.
The Internship: 'Inscribed Intent: A Cultural History of the
Rwandan Genocide'
The project I have undertaken for the purpose of this internship will
examine the concept of genocidal intent by investigating the interface
between the disciplines of history, anthropology, international law,
and forensic bio-archaeology. Before perpetrators of genocide can be
convicted, Article II of the Genocide Convention requires that
genocidal intent be demonstrated using testimonial, physical or
documentary evidence that the perpetrator acted with “the
intent to destroy,… a national, ethnical, racial or
religious group, as such.” A multidisciplinary approach to
this problem can provide a higher standard of evidence of genocidal
intent due to the realization that during genocide, perpetrators often
physically inscribe the bodies of their victims with
culturally-specific symbolic violence intended to communicate the
victims’ perceived status as members of an unwanted group.
With these ideas in mind, I have recently embarked upon a six-month
internship in Rwanda, funded by the Students for Development program.
During this internship, I will be examining the various forms of
violence inflicted upon victims of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, with
particular attention paid to comparing the way that Hutu moderates
versus Tutsi civilians, and men’s versus women’s
bodies were inscribed using physical violence. This work will have two
stages:
- interviewing survivors and perpetrators for information regarding the specific modes of violence observed and their understanding of the meaning inherent in the violence, and
- reviewing archived forensics reports and participating in forensic exhumations to determine whether it is possible to recognize evidence of such violence in the archaeological record.
The study of gendered violence as it affected Rwandan women during the genocide is central to this internship. Gendered violence, specifically mass rape, sexual slavery and forms of torture aimed at obscuring physical characteristics associated with femininity, was widespread. It is believed that these forms of violence contain evidence of genocidal intent and thus require further investigation.
It is hoped that the resulting data will provide testimonial, documentary and physical evidence towards establishing the genocidal intent of individual perpetrators involved in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The work will also provide a theoretical framework for international investigations of genocide in other regions, such as Darfur, and encourage collaborative research between history, anthropology, international law, and forensic bio-archaeology.
On a more general level, it is believed that the data resulting from this internship will contribute to future genocide prevention efforts in Rwanda by identifying patterns in the escalation of violence that can be useful for early warning. Because symbolic violence is observed throughout the genocidal process, by improving our ability to recognize genocidal intent early in the conflict it may be possible to encourage intervention prior to the development of a full-fledged genocide of a civilian population.
Given the often tense atmosphere in neighboring countries to Rwanda at present (particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi), this information could prove incredibly important for the prevention of further human rights abuses and genocide in the Great Lakes region. Furthermore, should genocide occur, it is believed that the resulting data could improve the prosecution’s ability to demonstrate genocidal intent in causes where alleged perpetrators are known to have been involved in committing acts of excessive and symbolically-laden violence. Thus, the data resulting from this research could serve to establish a foundation for linking oral historical, anthropological and forensic archaeological evidence at the level of the international tribunals and courts. Thus this internship has considerable implications for matters relating to international and indigenous governance, particularly in the areas of human security, conflict resolution and international human rights, and as such, has application beyond the theoretical.