An ethical issue I came across in Rwanda was the question of whether it’s ok to identify someone who has been through a traumatic incident. Is a survivor capable of full consent? On that topic, I wrote for World and Media about how the resurfacing of old media reports can negatively impact genocide survivors.
‘We meet again a few weeks later. Nyiramilimo sits in a bright, airy office, on the fourth floor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A portrait of President Paul Kagame hangs over her head. She’s busy: her phone buzzes as we talk.
She tells me story after story.
The story of a girl, aged 15 during the genocide, who was taken by her parents’ killers to the DRC and raped. When she escaped she was pregnant, and after she gave birth to a son she handed him to relatives to raise so she could attend university and start her life anew. She met a boy and they got engaged; then he travelled to Canada to finish his schooling. There, on the TV, he saw old footage of her speaking about her rape and called her in shock. With her engagement over, the girl called Nyiramilimo asking “what do I do? I don’t want that story to be following me my whole life. Now I am well, I just finished university and I want to be normal.”’
sallyhayden 