ABSTRACT
In September 1998, the ICTR completed its first contested case and achieved another milestone by drawing a jurisprudential road map to justice. The case against former Taba bourgmestre (mayor) Jean-Paul Akayesu1 is significant for a series of reasons: it was the first trial before an international tribunal of someone charged with genocide, and it was the first trial in which an international tribunal conceptualized sexual violence (including rape) as an act of genocide. Also, because this was the ICTR's first judgment based on a contested trial, the justices had to face many jurisprudential issues for the first time. Trial Chamber Fs lengthy judgment of 2 September 1998 carefully explicates the facts, reasoning and rules it relied upon to reach its conclusions. By so doing, this Judgment will stand as an historic precedent for future tribunals dealing with similar issues.
