The Gacaca courts () were a system of transitional justice in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. 'Gacaca', meaning "short grass" referred to the public space where neighborhood male elders (abagabo) would meet to solve local problems. The name was chosen in 2001 for the national criminal justice system created in order to try those implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which 520,000 to 702,000 people were killed. In 1994, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try high-ranking government and army officials accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Legally established in 2001, the Gacaca courts began conducting trials in 2002 and proliferated throughout the country by early 2007. The Gacaca courts were presented as a method of transitional justice, claimed by the Rwandan government to promote communal healing and rebuilding in the wake of the genocide.International Center for Transitional Justice
The system has received various criticisms. The Survivors Fund, which represents survivors of the genocide, worried the Gacaca courts put survivors in danger of reprisal. Incidents of survivors being targeted for providing evidence at the courts have been detailed in a number of a reports. Scholars have shown how the courts became a critical mechanism for establishing the government's official narrative on the genocide, recognizing only Tutsi as victims and Hutu as perpetrators. Natacha Nsabimana, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago describes how the Gacaca system reinforced a temporal and social framework she termed 'genocide-time,' where "genocidal violence in the past is recounted and made agentive in the present through social interactions and choices made by political subjects in their social-political landscape." She contends this perception influences daily interactions and the collective psyche, complicating genuine reconciliation. Furthermore, Nsabimana points out that the official narrative promoted by Gacaca often oversimplifies the complex identities and histories of individuals, grouping them into broad categories of 'victim' and 'perpetrator,' which does not necessarily reflect their lived realities and personal histories.
History of Gacaca Within 17th century Rwanda, prior to colonization, the extended lineage or family (umuryango), which encompassed several households (inzu), was the main unit of social organization within Rwandan society. The status of people within families was based upon the age and sex of the person. Only older married men, without living parents, were independent while all others, especially women, were to be dependent and subservient to men. The family lineage controlled arranged marriages, ancestral traditions and ceremonies, payment or retrieval of debts, and was the primary source of security.
Ruling over these lineages were kings (mwami) presiding over their respective kingdoms. The king, within Rwandan society, embodied power, justice, and knowledge and was responsible for mediating major disputes within his region. However, before disputes were brought to the kings, they were heard locally by wise men in Gacaca gatherings.
The name Gacaca is derived from the Kinyarwanda word umucaca meaning "a plant so soft to sit on that people prefer to gather on it". Gacaca gatherings were meant to restore order and harmony within communities by acknowledging wrongs and pursuing justice for the victim.
The colonization of Rwanda and introduction of Western law systems transformed Rwandan society, with Rwandans going to westernized courts to settle disputes. As the kings and wise men declined in legitimacy, Gacaca courts began to dwindle.
Post-genocide Gacaca After the genocide, the new Rwandan government struggled to prosecute the approximately 130,000 alleged perpetrators. Originally, they were to be tried in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Lacking the resources to organise first-world courts, the Gacaca system was seen as a means of preventing communities and individuals from seeking revenge.Remembering genocide against tutsi, Catherine Wambua, 1 June 2012, Al Jazeera, Retrieved 2 March 2016
The goal of the Gacaca courts was to: Establish truth about what happened Accelerate the legal proceedings for those accused of genocide crimes Eradicate the culture of impunity Reconcile Rwandans and reinforce their unity Use the capacities of Rwandan society to deal with its problems through justice-based Rwandan customs
The categorization of Gacaca courts in Rwanda is based on the concept of a cell and a sector. A cell is equivalent to a small community while a sector is equivalent to a small group of cells making up a village. Within these two categories, there were 9013 cells and 1545 sectors, with over 12,103 Gacaca courts established nationwide. Presiding over the Gacaca meetings were inyangamugayo (judges). These judges were elected to serve on a nine-person council. During the Gacaca process, there were two phases. Starting between 2005 and 2006, information was taken from those who were accused from all Gacaca cells. The approximate number of those who were accused was 850,000, 50,000 of which were deceased.
The 850,000 accused were charged according to the categories in the table below.
June 2004–March 2007 Type Category 1 Category 2 (1st & 2nd) Category 2 (3rd) Category 3Crime: 1. Planners, organizers, supervisors, ringleaders 2. Persons who occupied positions of leadership 3. Well-known murderers 4. Torturers 5. Rapists 6. Persons who committed dehumanizing acts on a dead body 1. ‘Ordinary killers’ in serious attacks 2. Those who committed attacks in order to kill but without attaining this goal Those who committed attacks against others, without the intention to kill Those who committed property offencesCourt:Ordinary CourtSector GacacaSector GacacaCell GacacaSentence: No data No data No data No data Without confession:Death Penalty or Life imprisonment25-30 Years5-7 YearsCivil ReparationConfession before appearance on the list of suspects25-30 Years7-12 Years1-3 YearsCivil ReparationConfession after appearance on the list of suspects25–30 Years12-15 Years3-5 YearsCivil ReparationAccessory sentencePerpetual and total loss of civil rightsPermanent loss of a listed number of civil rights//
March 2007 onwards Type: Category 1 Category 2 (1st, 2nd, & 3rd) Category 2 (4th&5th) Category 2 (6th) Category 3Crime: 1. Persons who occupied positions of leadership 2. Rapists 1. Well-known murderers 2. Torturers 3. Persons who committed dehumanizing acts on a dead body 1. ‘Ordinary killers’ in serious attacks 2. Those who committed attacks in order to kill but without attaining this goal Those who committed attacks against others, without the intention to kill Those who committed property offencesCourt: Ordinary Court Sector Gacaca Sector Gacaca Sector Gacaca Cell GacacaSentence: No data No data No data No data No data Without confession: Life imprisonment 30 years or Life imprisonment 15-19 Years 5-7 Years Civil Reparation Confession before appearance on the list of suspects 20-24 Years 20-24 Years 8-11 Years 1-2 Years Civil Reparation Confession after appearance on the list of suspects 25-30 Years 25-29 Years 12-14 Years 3-4 Years Civil Reparation Accessory sentence Permanent loss of a listed number of civil rights No confession: permanent loss Confession: temporary loss of a listed number of civil rights No confession: permanent loss Confession: temporary loss of a listed number of civil rights / /
The approximate number of people who were to be tried in these three categories:
Category 1: 77,269
Category 2: 432,557
Category 3: 308,739
Predecessors and partners in justice
The spontaneous emergence of the Gacaca activities and the gradual support for Gacaca by the authorities was motivated by the fact that the ordinary justice system was virtually non-existent after the genocide. The Gacaca had to do what it did before—relieve the pressure on the ordinary law courts, which had worked slowly before the genocide and had ground to a halt during the violence. After the genocide ended and law courts reopened they were quickly overloaded by the cases of genocide suspects who were filling the prisons. The new Gacaca system was not unprecedented, bearing similarities to Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC). South Africa's TRC bore the slogan “Revealing is Healing” and operated under the belief that truth-telling served as a “therapeutic function”. Rwandan government heard suggestions to establish its own TRC, but ultimately chose the more historically and culturally familiar Gacaca system.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established in 1995, operated simultaneously with the Gacaca courts. It has indicted 93 people for crimes committed during the genocide. The United Nations Security Council established the ICTR to "prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighbour States, between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994". The ICTR is located in Arusha, Tanzania, and has offices in Kigali, Rwanda. Its Appeals Chamber is located in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICTR has played a pioneering role in the establishment of a credible international criminal justice system and is the first ever international tribunal to deliver verdicts in relation to genocide, and the first to interpret the definition of genocide set forth in the 1948 Geneva Conventions. It also is the first international tribunal to define rape in international criminal law and to recognise rape as a means of perpetrating genocide.
The ICTR delivered its last trial judgement on 20 December 2012 in the Ngirabatware case. Following this milestone, the Tribunal's remaining judicial work now rests solely with the Appeals Chamber. As of October 2014, only one case comprising six separate appeals is pending before the ICTR Appeals Chamber. One additional appeal from ICTR trial judgement was delivered in December 2014 in the Ngirabatware case by the appeals chamber of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, which started assuming responsibility for the ICTR's residual functions on 1 July 2012. The ICTR's formal closure is scheduled to coincide with the return of the Appeals Chamber's judgement in its last appeal. Until the return of that judgement in 2015, the ICTR will continue its efforts to end impunity for those responsible for the Genocide through a combination of judicial, outreach, and capacity-building efforts. Through these efforts, the ICTR will fulfil its mandate of bringing justice to the victims of the Genocide and, in the process, hopes to deter others from committing similar atrocities in the future.
Successes