NAME OF MECHANISM

Gacaca courts

PERIOD OF OPERATION

2001 – present. The Gacaca courts began operations on 19 June 2002 in a pilot phase and full implementation began on 24 June 2004. The courts have completed their work with the exception of a number of cases still under review.

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: Established by law in March 2001 and in their most recent form by Organic Law 13/2008 of 19 May 2008, the Gacaca courts were mandated to reveal truth, speed up trials, put an end to the culture of impunity in Rwanda, promote reconciliation, revive traditional forms of justice and demonstrate the ability of local communities to solve their own problems and problems caused by the genocide. They looked at crimes committed between 1 October 1990 and 31 December 1994.

The law defines four categories of accused: (1) those who planned or directed genocide (to be judged by national courts or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR); (2) those who committed crimes with the intention to kill or whose actions led to death; (3) those who committed crimes that led to serious assault against a person; and (4) those who committed offences against property. The Gacaca courts were responsible for accused in categories 2–4.

Budget: An estimated total of US$40 million [RNW | 24 Aug 2010].

RESOURCES

Gacaca courts official website
Organic Law 13/2008 [May 2008]

RESULTS

The Gacaca courts have processed approximately 1.2 million people. Rwandan and international civil society organisations monitored the work of the Gacaca courts. They have highlighted several positive elements of the process, including that it brought genocide survivors and perpetrators together, fostered public participation and promoted truth finding through a confession system and community work [PRI│Feb 2010].

Civil society has also noted a number of obstacles and problems with the process, including that it did not ensure the same fair trial standards as regular courts, that the truth and reconciliation it promoted were constrained by public participation in Gacaca being mandatory and limited, and that the security of witnesses could not be ensured [PRI│Feb 2010]. Victims also complained about the lenient sentences handed down by the courts and of being re-traumatised by the problematic truth-telling element of the process, as well as that revenge killings of Hutus by actors affiliated with the current ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, were not sufficiently examined [RNW | 24 Aug 2010].

BACKGROUND

The Rwandan government proposed using a modernised, formalised form of traditional justice, Gacaca, in order to deal with the hundreds of thousands of genocide suspects sitting in jail after the 1994 genocide. It argued that neither the domestic judicial system, the ranks of which were severely depleted by the genocide, nor the ICTR would be able to deal with such a caseload in a timely and fair fashion. It also insisted on addressing the problem of justice locally, with a focus on restorative justice over purely retributive justice [Guardian│17 Mar 2005].

SOURCES

[Guardian│17 Mar 2005]
[Penal Reform International │Feb 2010]
[Radio Netherlands | 24 Aug 2010]