Gacaca: A successful experiment in restorative justice?

from the article by Charlotte Clapham on e-International Relations:

....The twofold reparative function of restorative justice is, however, crucial and so the extent to which gacaca’s emphasis on ‘truth-telling’ realised its desired outcome is subject to debate. To draw on Johnstone’s conception of restorative justice once again, the fact that gacaca failed to offer something positive, in the form of compensation, to meet the needs of the victims meant part of its reparative function was undermined.  

Aug 16, 2012 Limitations, Theory, Country:Rwanda, National Reconciliation, Indigenous, Region: Africa

• Read More

Learning from Rwanda

from the article by John H. Stanfield, II in Tikkun:

....How do you mend a country when intimates killed intimates in such tightly knitted communities? How do you do justice when thousands of people were perpetrators and where you only have so much prison space? How do you do it?

Rwanda is doing it through a largely homegrown restorative justice methodology.

Jan 20, 2012 Limitations, Practice, Region: Africa, Support, Country:Rwanda, National Reconciliation

• Read More