Les Enfants de Mauvais Souvenir: Conceived through Violence, Born as Outcasts, Living in Danger - Why Parentless and Orphaned Children of Rape Should Receive Refugee or Asylum Status

Penn State International Law Review Volume 26 Number 4 Penn State International Law Review Article 6 5-1-2008 Les Enfants de Mauvais Souvenir: Conceived through Violence, Born as Outcasts, Living in Danger - Why Parentless and Orphaned Children of Rape Should Receive Refugee or Asylum Status Justina Uram Follow this and additional works at: http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/psilr Recommended Citation Uram, Justina (2008) "Les Enfants de Mauvais Souvenir: Conceived through Violence, Born as Outcasts, Living in Danger - Why Parentless and Orphaned Children of Rape Should Receive Refugee or Asylum Status," Penn State International Law Review: Vol. 26: No. 4, Article 6. Available at: http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/psilr/vol26/iss4/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by Penn State Law eLibrary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Penn State International Law Review by an authorized administrator of Penn State Law eLibrary. For more information, please contact . Les Enfants de Mauvais Souvenir: Conceived through Violence, Born as Outcasts, Living in Danger. Why Parentless and Orphaned Children of Rape Should Receive Refugee or Asylum Status Justina Uram* I. Introduction Twelve-year old Claude Hope Muhayimana and his younger sister, eight-year old Claudine, live in a small housing project called the Village of Hope in Kigali, Rwanda.' They have no family except for their mother, Eugenia, who is dying of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ("AIDS"). 2 Last year, Claude began to wonder about the rest of his family, asking his mother, "Mama, why don't we have a dad? Why don't we have any aunties, uncles, cousins? Did they all die with Daddy?",3 Eugenia explains to her son that their family died in a war and his father is in heaven; she is not yet ready to share the truth about how * J.D., The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, 2008; B.A. Policy Studies, Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 2002. Sincere thanks to Professor Won Kidane and Daniel Olejko for their advice and guidance. Special thanks to the Penn State International Law Review, particularly to Matthew Cronin and Katherine Merclean. Endless thanks to my loving family: Deffy for his patience, Alex for his insightfulness, Charlie for his enthusiasm, "Mubangu the Parents" for their encouragement, and Mommy for all her sacrifices. Finally, my love and gratitude to my Daddy, John T. Uram, who, watching from above, has the best seat in the house. Vyechnaya Pamyat. 1. Emily Wax, Rwandans Are Struggling to Love Children of Hate, WASH. POST, Mar. 28, 2004, at Al http://www.genocidewatch.org/RwandanAreStrugglingToLov Childreno%20Hate.htm (recounting the Muhayimana family story); see U.N. PRATT ET AL., LIASON OFFICE, DEP'T OF PUB. AFFAIRS & RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, REMEMBERING RWANDA: WE ARE ALREADY DEAD (2004) [hereinafter REMEMBERING RWANDA], available at http://parl.gc.adventist.org/documents/pdf/flyer.pdf; see also Jonathan Clayton, The Real Star of Hotel Rwanda, TIMES (London), Apr. 4, 2004, available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3- 1553831,00.html. 2. Wax, supra note 1. 3. See REMEMBERING RWANDA, supra note 1 at 2. PENN STATE INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 26:4 Claude and his sister came into this world.4 During the holiday season, Claude becomes more inquisitive when he sees fellow classmates attending family parties and relatives bringing gifts to other students at his school. 5 His mother, who is 5'9", weighs a mere ninety pounds as her disease worsens. 6 Eugenia explains to a friend that she hopes to have the courage to tell Claude and Claudine where they came from before she dies.7 Eugenia, unlike many other mothers of les enfants de mauvais souvenir,8 is no longer ashamed of her children and has actually grown to love them. 9 During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Eugenia was in her early twenties and a student at the University of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC").' 0 Before the end of the academic year, she returned to Rwanda for a short visit with her parents. During her weeklong visit, Hutu troops raided and destroyed her village, massacring Eugenia's entire family." In return for her own life, Eugenia, who was a virgin at the time, was repeatedly gang-raped by the Hutu militia group. 2 She chillingly describes the number of militia members that raped her as "as many as ants." 1 3 After becoming the militia's sex slave for three months, Eugenia became pregnant with Claude. 14 Shortly thereafter, when Eugenia's captors fled to the DRC to escape Tutsi forces, one of the soldiers made Eugenia his "wife" and continued to rape her during her pregnancy with Claude. 15 After giving birth to Claude, her captor rejected the baby, stating that he hated Claude because he resembled his mother.' 6 When Eugenia became pregnant again with Claudine, she and toddler Claude were able to escape the military on foot, walking from the DRC to Rwanda only to discover, upon her return, she was infected with AIDS.' 7 Eight years later, Eugenia is near death, and worries about the future of her children.' 8 Claude senses the tension and pretends to be the man 4. Id. 5. Wax, supra note 1. 6. Id. 7. Id. 8. Wax, supra note 1 (defining les enfants de mauvais souvenir as children of bad memories). 9. Id. 10. Clayton, supra note 1. 11. Wax, supra note 1. 12. Id. 13. Id. 14. Clayton, supra note 1. 15. Wax, supra note 1. 16. See generally id. 17. Id. 18. See generally id. LES ENFANTS DE MA UVAIS SOUVENIR 2008] of the house by helping his mother cut firewood, carry bricks, and prepare tea for Eugenia in the evenings. 19 He plays Congolese music and asks his mother to dance, which brings a smile to her face. 20 To Eugenia, Claude21 and Claudine appear healthy, but she fears they also have AIDS. Fortunately, Claude and Claudine live in the Village of Hope 22 with other children of rape whose mothers have promised Eugenia they would finish raising her children when she dies.23 For that reason, Claude and his sister are the lucky ones. However, thousands of other enfants de mauvais souvenir have either been killed, neglected, abandoned, or rejected by their mothers and communities. 24 Others stand to lose the only adult who cares for them because of the systematic spread of AIDS.25 Even within the Village of Hope, other mothers struggle to love their children, such as Alphonsina Mutuze, who regularly beats her eightyear old son, Inkuba. 26 "Out of anger, [Alphonsina] 27tells Inkuba lies: 'You are not even mine. I picked you from the trash."' Without an accepting family or community to raise and protect them, children of rape have a significant likelihood of becoming street children, 28 who are routinely physically, emotionally and sexually abused and forcibly recruited into militia groups and political demonstrations.2 9 When and if these children attempt to escape from their homeland, they are placed in refugee camps with adults, which (...truncated)