Retributive justice: The Gacaca courts in Rwanda

Corey, Allison; Joireman, Sandra F.

doi:10.1093/afraf/adh007

Cited by 64 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Other Hutus would not participate in the bloodletting and were themselves killed, and in Southern Rwanda many moderate Hutus were targeted for death by the Interahamwe. 15 The claim that the extreme violence was simply an example of ethnic conflict offers no insight into the events, nor the interests at stake or the groups involved. That is, if it was not all Hutus, then which Hutus?…”

Section: J S Murermentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts From Comparative Perspectives

Murer

2012

Terrorism and Political Violence

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Section: J S Murermentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts From Comparative Perspectives

Murer

2012

Terrorism and Political Violence

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“…With the classical legal system clearly incapable of dealing with the 120,000 suspects who remained in prison without trial as the years after the genocide went by, the Rwandan government devised a system of local participatory justice in which -in its ideology -neighbours would seek out the truth, reconcile and bring localized justice to each of Rwanda's ten thousand hills (DJC, 2003a; see also Corey and Joireman, 2004;Honeyman, 2002;Sarkin, 2001). While the gacaca ended up being presented by the Rwandan government as a strongly homegrown, locally-devised institution, there is actually some evidence that it was representatives of the donor community who first raised the idea of using customary systems of dispute resolution to deal with the legacy of the genocide.…”

Section: The Example Of the Gacacamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This bias made many members of the general public consider the gacaca to be 'victors' justice', or even 'justice against Hutu only', and could, according to many, lead to a deepening of ethnic divisions in the long run (Corey and Joireman, 2004;Marchal, 2003;Zorbas, 2004). Apart from underlining the fact that the RPF-government stood outside the law, the gacaca also enabled a further strengthening of a state that was already strongly centralist.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Donor‐Driven Justice and its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda

Oomen

2005

Development and Change

125

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Never before was a process of doing justice driven so strongly from the outside as in post-genocide Rwanda. Not only did the 1994 genocide lead to the founding of the International Tribunal, but it also induced intensive donor involvement in domestic attempts to 'break the cycle of hatred' -from the work done by the national courts and the Unity Commission to the gacaca. In this sense, Rwanda became the forerunner of a much wider trend, towards a judicialization of international relations, for instance through an emphasis on international criminal law. However, the past decade of donor involvement in Rwanda in general, and the case of the gacaca in particular, show us how this specific -technocratic, de-contextualized -emphasis on justice might seem innocuous at first glance, but carries dangers within it, particularly if it takes place in an increasingly autocratic and oppressive political environment like that of contemporary Rwanda.

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“…If no evidence is forthcoming the accused is released. Sentences can also be commuted in exchange for confession or, in part, served through community work [Daly, 2002;Corey and Joireman, 2004]. The logic of the gacaca is based on the notion of restoring social relationships [Strain and Keyes, 2003: 121].…”

Section: Application To Rwandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Approaches to Post-conflict Justice and Reconciliation be Determined Globally, Nationally or Locally?

Betts

2005

Eur J Dev Res

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This Year the European Association of Development Research and TrainingInstitutes (EADI) has created a prize for excellence in development research. The prize, worth e1 000, was awarded to a young researcher for an essay on an issue of development studies and the prizewinner was invited to the Association's General Conference in Bonn from 21-24 September 2005. The following message comes from the panel of judges for the EADI Prize.The First EADI Prize for Development Studies is part of that mission to encourage creative, interdisciplinary, multifaceted research on development issues. It was created with two objectives in mind: to reward and bring recognition to 'excellence in development research' from the upcoming generation of development specialists; and to reinforce the activities of the EADI Working Groups who are intimately involved in reviewing entries.This first year of the prize saw a remarkable amount of interest, with over 50 entries from throughout Europe on a wide range of topics. All entries were of high quality and the job of whittling them down to a manageable number for the jury was not easy. The job, however, was done, and we have a clear winner.Alexander Betts' paper on post-genocide justice in Rwanda (published here) analyses the interface between reconciliation and retribution from a triple perspective: anthropological, legal and social. His paper is scholarly and innovative, yet concise and eminently readable. His argument is finely structured and logical; it has a beginning, a middle and an end, with a conclusion of not only scholarly relevance, but of policy relevance, too.The Judges came independently to unanimous agreement on Betts' paper being the winner.This article responds to the normative question of whether post-conflict justice and reconciliation should be determined at the global, national or local level through an analysis of the tripartite judicial framework that has emerged in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. It evaluates the experience of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), national courts and gacaca courts across two interdisciplinary theoretical debates: first, the anthropological and philosophical question of relativism versus universalism; second, the socio-legal question of retribution versus restoration. The article argues that these two theoretical debates, pervasive in the literature, represent false dichotomies and that, in the case of Rwanda, there has been a complex and dynamic relationship between approaches to justice adopted at each level. Although in practice political tensions and elite interests have created contradictions and undermined judicial credibility at every level, the experience points to how each level could potentially be complementary.Grâce à une analyse du cadre judiciaire tripartite qui a été mis en place au Rwanda au lendemain du génocide de 1994, cet article répond à la question normative suivante: la justice et la réconciliation post-conflit doivent-elles être déterminées à l'échelon mondial, national ou local...

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Retributive justice: The Gacaca courts in Rwanda

Cited by 64 publications

References 11 publications

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts From Comparative Perspectives

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts From Comparative Perspectives

Donor‐Driven Justice and its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda

Should Approaches to Post-conflict Justice and Reconciliation be Determined Globally, Nationally or Locally?

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