"The Uncondemned" is documentary about the bravery of a group of lawyers trying to make rape a war crime, and the 4 women who testified rape to a United Nations court.
Godeliève Mukasarasi, Serafina Mukakinani, Victoire Mukambanda and Cecile Mukarugwiza, all share one thing in common. During the Rwanda genocide, these women were all at one point rape to soon after tell their stories countless times in front of their friends, family, and neighbors, when they never imagined speaking up about it at all.
Victoire was raped countless times while her baby was next to her. Her baby was later killed along with her husband. For months things were quiet. She didn't say a word about what happened and didn't plan on it until the day she met Mukasarasi. Mukasarasi worked as a social worker before the genocide and then set up an organization for survivors once it was over. This is where the two met and Victorie found her voice again.
RAINN is around the globe, one of largest anti-sexual violence organization. Their statistics show that "out of every 1000 rapes, 994 perpetrators walk free", "6 rapist will go to jail", and "Only 344 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police". This means 2 out of every 3 cases still go unreported, even after the fact that rape had become an "act against humanity" from the ruling. While the Akayesu case was a huge victory, many more will be needed in the fight against sexual violence.
Once these women banded together, court investigators found them through the organization Mukasarasi founded. Many government officials regularly went to the organization bearing gifts of goats. Because of the genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was opened in 1994, with the mission of charging high level perpetrators for genocide. But after being created many didn't want this court to succeed in fear of what might be in store for their families or themselves in the case of someone being a witness.
The Mukasarasi family was one of the families that became victim of her testifying against Akayesu. Her husband was murdered just before Christmas in 1996 and a year later another Hutu woman, her husband, and four children were all killed. But despite the fear, these women still testified for what many believed was a losing case. These women and lawyers did the unthinkable. Against all odds, dared to reach justice. And won the battle.
Jean-Paul Akayesu, the first person to be convicted of genocide, and using rape as a weapon for the 1994 Rwanda genocide. A group of US lawyers banded together, walking into a battle everyone thought they would lose. Rape was considered something that was unfortunate and nothing was ever done because it was, "a thing men do" when it comes to war. But after the conviction, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda recognized sexual assault as something for power and not sexual gratification, and stated rape as a crime against humanity, rape and sexual violence “constitute genocide in the same way as any other act as long as they were committed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group, targeted as such.”
The acts of these 4 woman and group of lawyers defending them allowed for this achievement to be possible. It was an amazing act of bravery for the women to stand as witnesses and for the lawyers to prosecute for a cause that has never been fought for. These unsung heros made a leap into the unknown and came out with a huge victory. While the story may be tragic, the survivors didn't let what happened destroy their voices and who they were. With this case sexual violence could no longer be overlooked. Now women around the world will know that their pleas for justice will be answered.
