Rape Can Be an Act of Genocide
The precedent came from Rwanda cases heard by Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay.
Reuters World News · US execution livestream, Nobel peace prize and a Siberian plague scareRape and sexual violence can count as genocide.
The precedent was set in rulings from the United Nations court created to try crimes from Rwanda. South African judge Navi Pillay, who had previously served on the International Criminal Court, sat on the bench for those cases.
In 1998, the court decided the case of local mayor Jean-Paul Akayesu. He was convicted of genocide, in part because of rapes committed by men under his authority.
Pillay has now received the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Questions people ask
What was the Rwanda tribunal?
It was a United Nations court created in 1994 to try people responsible for genocide and other serious crimes committed in Rwanda. It was based in Arusha, Tanzania, and closed in 2015 after issuing 62 convictions. Its judgments shaped modern international criminal law.
What other inquiry did Pillay lead?
She chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In 2025, the commission released a report concluding that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. That finding made headlines around the world.