WUNRN
RWANDA - WOMEN LEAD FOR PROGRESS,
PEACE, MDG'S
By Lyric Thompson - July 20, 2011
Seventeen years ago last Sunday, the Rwandan genocide came to a bloody end. In one of the of the most horrifying 100 days in human history, inter-ethnic tensions stoked by political propaganda escalated into full-scale civil war between two tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over the span of 100 days, more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The two major ethnic groups had lived peacefully for generations, but decades of colonial rule and exploitation built the foundations of tensions that ultimately reached a boiling point in 1994, fanned by radio campaigns inciting violence. Bands of Interahamwe, a group of Hutu rebels armed with machetes, roamed cities and the countryside, killing any Tutsi or Tutsi-sympathizer they encountered. People fleeing the slaughter sought refuge in schools, churches and other places of worship, assuming them to be safe havens, only to be massacred within. To this day, many of these buildings remain as they did during those 100 days, a reminder of the horror of war.
As in many conflicts, women
were particularly vulnerable, targeted for brutal sexual violence as a tool of
war and instrument of genocide. Between 250,000 to 500,000 women are estimated
to have been raped during the genocide. According to UN Special Rapporteur Rene
Degni-Segui, "Rape was the rule and its absence the exception."
The campaign of sexual violence had a devastating impact on the demographics of
the surviving Rwandan population. An estimated 70% rape survivors were infected with HIV, and
even more had lost their homes, friends and family members in the slaughter.
After the genocide, up to 70%
of the surviving population consisted of women. Despite the scale of
devastation the society had endured, these women took immediate action to set
their country on the path to recovery. Among other activities, they began to
clean the streets, rebuild homes and adopt children orphaned by the genocide.
In spite of their own suffering, women got involved at the national and
community levels to set their society back on track.
To this day, it has been women
who led
Equally notable is the high
incidence of women’s participation in leadership roles throughout the country,
a favorite case study in the cannon of research and studies linking women’s
equality with economic growth and stability. A recent UN Women Report documents
Rwandan women have the highest
rate of political representation in public office in the world, standing at
more than 50%. This critical mass in legislative bodies allows for women to
institute many legal reforms focused on the female population. According to the
UN Report, female Parliamentarians have worked to improve women’s economic and
inheritance rights, as well as pass laws that protect women from domestic
violence and marital rape. Notably,
These statistics suggest that
investment in women’s equality and creating space for women’s contributions in
critical social, economic and political processes is a key to achieving broader
human development goals. Increasingly, research shows that investing in
women and working to achieve MDG 3 - gender equality - can truly be the key to
achieving all 8 Millennium Development Goals. Consider the following:
According to the World Bank,
“Greater economic and educational opportunities for women mean her daughters
are more likely to go to school, her babies are more likely to survive infancy
and her family is more likely to eat nutritious meals.” That statement connects
progress on MDGs 2, 4 and 1, respectively, all through investment in the
mother. Also according to the World Bank, the children of educated mothers are
40% more likely to live beyond the age of 5 and 50% more likely to be
immunized. That is direct progress on MDG 4. We also know that women are the
stewards of and the closest to the environment (MDG 7), and they are the
fastest-growing population infected with HIV/AIDS (MDG 6).
Returning to the
There have also been noteworthy
improvements in public health. Life expectancy has increased from a mere 27.1
years following the genocide to over 50 years in 2009.
Women have hence made
significant strides in
This anniversary, we celebrate
the beacon of hope that