‘A very sensitive Rwandan woman’: sexual violence, history, and gendered narratives in the trial of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda, 2001-2011

In 2011, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the former Rwandan Minister of Family and Women’s Development, became first woman convicted genocide in an international criminal trial, rape as a crime against humanity. Nyiramasuhuko’s case complicates portrayals women peace-loving victims violence, representation often used to explain women’s post-genocide socio-political gains. Drawing on archival records from her trial at International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, this article explores how African history legal-historical perspectives are necessary understand landmark judgment, particular gendered narratives that permeate its coverage. Situating within historical moment when violence was emerging object concern, social, historical, cultural milieu, it argues self-presentation, well witness testimonies, suffused with narratives. Nyiramasuhuko rendered herself wife mother, claiming these roles precluded participation sexualised violence. Her detractors, contrast, emphasised cruelty ambition, drawing tropes about powerful women. Historicising local is essential understanding gender mobilised accounts genocidal sexual