Testifying on Behalf of the Absent, Testifying Despite their Absence: The Victims of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda before the Paris “Cour d’Assises”

Since 2014, Rwandans suspected of having participated in the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 have appeared before French courts. Survivors of the massacre and relatives of victims take the stand one after the other, thus drawing a list of the many absentees who lost their lives in the genocide. The hearings provide an opportunity for the victims to express themselves about “their” disappeared, who are summoned in the courtrooms, and voice the effect of their absence onto the present.