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The Gacaca (pronounced "gachacha") court is part of a system of community justice inspired by tradition and established in 2001 in Rwanda, in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, when between 800,000 and 1,071,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered. After the Genocide, the new Rwandan Patriotic Front's government struggled with developing just means for the humane detention and prosecution of the more than 100,000 people accused of genocide, war crimes, and related crimes against humanity. In 2001, there were 130,000 prisoners in Rwandan prisons, and it was estimated that it would take 200 years to judge everyone.
In response, Rwanda implemented the Gacaca court system, which has evolved from traditional cultural communal law enforcement procedures.
Official Objectives of the Gacaca Court System
The "mission" of this system is to achieve "truth, justice, * reconciliation." It aims to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster and less expensive to the state.
According to the official Rwandan government website of the National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions, the "Gacaca Courts" system aims to achieve the following objectives:
- The reconstruction of what happened during the genocide
- The speeding up of the legal proceedings by using as many courts as possible
- The reconciliation of all Rwandans and building their unity
The Supreme Court Rwanda has been endowed with a 6th court called "Gacaca Courts Department" in order to co-ordinate and supervise the activities of the various courts without having to interfere with the decisions that they will have to make * in order to keep the national as well as the international community informed about the evolution of the Gacaca Courts' activities.
Since 2002, Gacaca Courts Department was replaced by the National Service of Gacaca Courts so as to coordinate the Gacaca Courts activities and speed up this process. (Introd., National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions)
Tradition of Gacaca
Originally, the Gacaca settled village or familial disputes. They were constituted as village assemblies, presided by the ancients, where each one could ask to speak. Gacaca (Kinyarwanda) translated roughly into English means "justice on the grass," as grass is the gathering place. The Gacaca court is thus a system of grassroots legal bodies, "inspired by tradition" (Introd.).
The current Rwandan Gacaca court system, as established in March 2001, involves both plaintiffs and witnesses in an interactive court proceeding against alleged criminals.
Traditionally, village elders called Inyangamugayo (Kinyarwanda for "uncorrupted" — intègre in French) would convene all parties to a crime and mediate a solution involving reparations or some act of contrition.
The judges now qualified as Inyangamugayo, who also have basic judicial training, are among 250, 000 individuals elected by Rwandans to serve in the Gacaca courts, which are in charge of judging three (of the four) categories of people accused of implication in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
The defendants do not have lawyers, but all village people can participate and intervene, either against or in favor of the defendant.
The first judgment of the operational phase took place on March 11, 2005.
Classification of crimes into four categories
The Act on the Organization and Pursuits of Crimes of Genocide or Crimes Against Humanity of August 1996 created four categories of alleged criminals:
- planners, organizers and leaders of the Genocide, charges against those who have acted in positions of authority, presumed infamous assassins as well as those alleged to have committed sexual crimes involving torture or rape
- perpetrators, co-perpetrators, or accomplices of voluntary homicide or violence with the intention to cause death or serious bodily harm leading to death
- perpetrators of serious bodily injury to others without intention to murder
- perpetrators of crimes resulting in property damage.
The first category of alleged criminals (those accused of planning or leading the Genocide and those accused of torture, rape or other sexual crimes) have been prosecuted before State (national) criminal courts. The gacaca do not have jurisdiction over such crimes against humanity as genocide and related war crimes. (According to sources, this limitation may change..) The Guacaca courts have been adjudicating the three other categories (simple murder, bodily injury, property damage). Capital punishment remains an exclusive prerogative of the State.
See also
- Court of law
- Crime against humanity
- Ethnic cleansing
- Genocide
- History of Rwanda
- Politics of Rwanda
- Rwandan Genocide
External links
- National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions Official Rwandan government website.
- "Gacaca courts in Rwanda." Online posting. PenalReform. 2003.
- "Rwanda Starts Prisoner Releases." Online posting. BBC News 29 July 2005.
- In Rwanda we say . . . The family that does not speak dies and Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda? Two films on gacaca and the legacy of genocide in Rwanda, written and dir. by Anne Aghion.
- In the Tall Grass Film exploring gacaca and the legacy of genocide in Rwanda, written and dir. by J. Coll Metcalfe.
References
- Stover, Eric and Weinstein, Harvey (2004). My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521542642.
"Gacaca court"