INTRODUCTION

A key obstacle to gender justice identified by survivor witnesses at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), is the disconcerting absence of reparations. Survivor witnesses of sexual violence interviewed for this study indicated that they had great expectations of receiving compensation for their pain, suffering, and great loss. This article focuses specifically on survivor witnesses who contracted HIV as a result of the rapes perpetrated during the Rwanda genocide. It discusses one of the findings of my PhD research. Using the voices, experiences, and silences of survivor witnesses of the sexual violence in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the study engaged survivor witnesses in a continuous dialogue since 2005 and used their voices and experiences to interrogate the International Criminal Justice System (ICJS) as partly represented by the ICTR. Voices of survivor witnesses on reparations, their experience, and their lived reality reveal an important point of reference to the missing link between reality and rhetoric within transitional justice interventions. Most importantly, the voices of the survivor witnesses refer to context specific notions of both individual and collective reparations which might take the gender agenda further for other tribunals already implementing the reparation regime; for example, the ICC and many other national courts. Victims and witnesses called to testify at the ICC can now participate and receive compensation. This paper encourages an informed discussion in order to explore the notion of reparations which can assist public actors to look at timely reparations through the lens of survivors.

Over 21 years after the 1994 Rwanda genocide, survivor witnesses have remained without legal redress or reparations because, among other reasons, the provisions of the ICTR are limited. In this regard, the discussion focuses on the hopes, concerns, and fears of survivor witnesses who interacted with the international criminal justice system as partly represented by ICTR.

Concerns of victims have been echoed by public actors in international criminal justice. During my discussions with the prosecutor on 2 January 2014, he confirmed that one of the concerns which he feels was not addressed because of limitations in the provisions of the ICTR was reparations, and said that ‘if the tribunal was to start again, that is one of the most important requests I would make to the Security Council…