Women's Struggle in Finding Truth - A comparative study of the South African TRC and Rwandan Gacacas

Abstract: The role of women in post-conflict countries in Africa has always been less prioritised when working for reconciliation. Our aim in this thesis is to compare how the gacacas in Rwanda and TRC´s in South Africa treated the suffering of, and justice for women and what healing processes were put in place to help them. Truth Commissions are a form of reconciliation theory which will be further analysed in this thesis in order to investigate the participation and treatment of women in these two countries. When comparing them we have found that the truth commissions are in fact gender-biased. South African and Rwandan women were less prioritised than men in the treatment during truth commissions to find justice for their suffering.