Three lawyers from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda came to speak at TCU//Courtesy of Kat Matthews

It seemed the odds were stacked against the team of young lawyers, investigators and counselors sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try crimes of war that took place during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

During the Rwandan Genocide, in which one million people were murdered in 100 days, rape was used as a weapon of war.

“Rape had been considered a war crime as a law, on the books, since 1919,” Lisa Pruitt said. “But there’s a big difference between a law being, what we might call, on the books, and there actually being an effort to enforce that law.”

Pruitt, Martin Luther King Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, was sent as a gender consultant during the United Nations Tribunal.

Prosecuting the rapes as a crime of war was seen as a drain of the Tribunal’s resources.

Fearful survivors were reluctant to testify about their rapes, making it difficult for prosecutor Pierre-Richard Prosper to make a case.

Pruitt revealed in the documentary “The Uncondemned” that she used her own experience as a rape survivor to connect with the women of the Taba, the village in which the investigation was focused.

Photo Courtesey of "The Uncondemned" Website

Pruitt said that testifying in the case allowed the witnesses to experience the “tonic of truth” and grow in confidence.

“When you’re telling the truth, you don’t get scared,” said Witness “JJ” in the documentary.

Photo of Witness "JJ"// Photo Courtesy of "The Uncondemned" Website

Pruitt came to Texas Christian University to participate in the Frost Foundation Lectureship for Global Issues to discuss her role in the Akayesu case. Pruitt, and two other attorneys from the case, spoke in a discussion forum held on Jan. 21 at TCU.

After attending the discussion forum, TCU student from Rwanda, Pacifique Rutamu, said, “It’s good that people here are learning other people’s experiences.”

In 1998, Jean Paul Akayesu, who served as the Mayor of Taba, was found guilty of nine counts of genocide. His conviction was the first ever for genocide and the first time an international tribunal ruled that rape was considered an act of genocide and a crime against humanity.