transitional justice in Rwanda
Transitional Justice in Rwanda How did the use of combined strategies of the ICTR and the Gacaca work in the Rwandan case, could it be seen as modern day model for transitional justice?
In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the international community and the Rwandan government embraced criminal prosecution as the primary approach to the restoration of law and order in the country. Leaders and policy makers inside and outside Rwanda cited breaking “the culture of impunity” and “the cycle of hatred” as the reasoning behind the retributive approach. Another key reason behind the quest for retributive justice is that the main organizers of the genocide were easily identifiable political, military and media leaders of Rwandan communities, not obscure actors. In general terms, the genocide was a collective act in which hundreds of thousands of Rwandans participated, many of whom found themselves in prison in the immediate years after the mass killings (Oomen, 2005: 885. Mamdani, 2002 and Prunier, 1995). Rwanda’s post-genocide experience with transitional justice is varied and complex. The Rwandan case study presents us with two distinct transitional justice strategies to evaluate: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the grassroots Gacaca courts. On the one hand the ICTR is an ad-hoc United Nation’s institution with an international jurisdiction, located outside the territory of the population affected by the violence, and uses formal trial and punishment procedures. Both the tribunal’s successes and failures have been instructive for the design and execution of future transitional justice strategies, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the other hand, Rwanda’s Gacaca courts have sought to provide a kind of justice that is both institutionally and culturally different from the ICTR. For better or for worse, Gacaca’s restorative justice principles of community participation,
In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the international community and the Rwandan government embraced criminal prosecution as the primary approach to the restoration of law and order in the country. Leaders and policy makers inside and outside Rwanda cited breaking “the culture of impunity” and “the cycle of hatred” as the reasoning behind the retributive approach. Another key reason behind the quest for retributive justice is that the main organizers of the genocide were easily identifiable political, military and media leaders of Rwandan communities, not obscure actors. In general terms, the genocide was a collective act in which hundreds of thousands of Rwandans participated, many of whom found themselves in prison in the immediate years after the mass killings (Oomen, 2005: 885. Mamdani, 2002 and Prunier, 1995). Rwanda’s post-genocide experience with transitional justice is varied and complex. The Rwandan case study presents us with two distinct transitional justice strategies to evaluate: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the grassroots Gacaca courts. On the one hand the ICTR is an ad-hoc United Nation’s institution with an international jurisdiction, located outside the territory of the population affected by the violence, and uses formal trial and punishment procedures. Both the tribunal’s successes and failures have been instructive for the design and execution of future transitional justice strategies, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the other hand, Rwanda’s Gacaca courts have sought to provide a kind of justice that is both institutionally and culturally different from the ICTR. For better or for worse, Gacaca’s restorative justice principles of community participation,
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