Rwanda

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Rwanda. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Restorative Justice Requires Compensation

I don't know that comepensation is required to make a TC successful or restorative for a couple of basic reasons. One, often there is very [...]

Rwanda: healing for victims

Thank you for publishing this article. It is our view that if victims or the victims' families have experienced some healing from gacaca justice then [...]

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 (Johnstone 2004: 9-10) meant part of its reparative function was undermined. For example, whilst ‘truth-telling’ is believed to be cathartic for victims, evidence of ‘traumatization’ through their testimonies did in many cases incite ‘fear, anxiety and sadness’ (Rime et al 2011: 701; Brouneus 2008). Although this may be unavoidable for crimes of such extreme brutality, in order for victims’ engagement in the process of ‘truth-telling’ between victim and perpetrator to hold a healing quality, adequate compensation is needed to empower victims (see, Baines 2007: 104; Waldorf 2006: 430) as well to avoid a ‘re-victimization’ of those involved (Wielenga and Harris 2011: 20; AI 2000: 8). Gacaca’s reparative qualities were therefore hindered, as its lack of compensation for victims (AI 2000: 9) meant that for many the process failed to ameliorate the damage caused by the crime and instead caused further harm.

Rwanda: Kagame commends Gacaca courts

from the article by Jean-Christophe Nsanzimana on allafrica.com: The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis and its aftermath, said president Kagame, presented us with challenges that tested us all to limit. Among these challenges was redress for victims, perpetrators' accountability for their crimes and restoring harmony among Rwandans. While Rwanda could have chosen the path of vengeance, or of general amnesty, Kagame said the people had chosen the hard but best way of justice and reconciliation. That is a victory to celebrate, he said on Monday during the official closing of the participative justice of Gacaca courts which started in June 2002.

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.

restorative justice & faith

Hello, Margot. Thank you for your comment. I think this is very important. Though I am a person of faith I would never argue that [...]

Lisa Rea's Kindred Comment About Restorative Justice

Lisa Rea's comment really speaks to me, "Though a percentage of supporters of RJ are people of faith it does not exclude those who are [...]

Agreed

I totally agree, Lisa Rea. I just want to notify you that there ARE restorative justice practices happening worldwide just in different forms. There are [...]

restorative justice processes used in Rwanda

Thank you for posting this excellent article. This is so encouraging. When restorative justice processes can be applied in Rwanda after genocide we know that [...]

Reconciliation Village Hosts Victims, Perpetrators of Rwandan Genocide

From the article by Zack Baddorf on Voice of America News: It's been more than 16 years since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was re-elected in August with 93 percent of the vote, says now there are no longer Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, only Rwandans. As a test of how well the different ethnic groups can live together, victims and perpetrators of the genocide are living side-by-side in a small community known as the Reconciliation Village.

Truth and reconciliation at a price

from the article by Phil Clark on Radio Netherlands Worldwide: The societal impact of gacaca on post-genocide Rwanda has been highly variable. Gacaca’s volatility results from the enormous number of communities involved, which themselves vary greatly in terms of their experiences of the genocide and the nature of inter-ethnic relations today. Over the last nine years, gacaca has recorded two principal successes and confronted two main challenges. First, gacaca has proven remarkably successful at expediting the post-genocide justice process, delivering accountability for hundreds of thousands of génocidaires. In the process, it has commuted many convicted perpetrators’ sentences to overcome the problem of overcrowded prisons and facilitated the reintegration of most detainees into everyday society. Thus, the Rwandan government will soon have delivered on its promise of comprehensive prosecutions of those responsible for committing genocide crimes but without recreating the problem of overcrowded jails that necessitated gacaca in the first place....

Trauma care in April

from the Prison Fellowship Rwanda blog: The month of April is a very difficult time for most Rwandans. April 7, 2010 marks the sixteenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, where over one million Rwandans were killed in just under 100 days. Sixteen years after the genocide is not a long time, and memories of the pain and loss are still raw and fresh in the minds of thousands of Rwandans. Many Rwandan survivors suffer from trauma and traumatic episodes during the period of April as they remember the horrific crimes experienced against them.

A safe place to call home: Securing the right of Rwandan genocide survivors to resettlement outside Rwanda

from Noam Schimmel's article in The Journal Of Humanitarian Assistance: Genocide survivors in Rwanda have great difficulty receiving refugee status and right of asylum to allow them to settle outside of the country. The standard reply that they receive when making queries about the possibility of immigrating to Europe, Canada, or the United States is that there is no longer persecution on the basis of ethnicity in Rwanda, and thus there is no legal merit to their request. It is true that there is no government sanctioned persecution on the basis of ethnicity in Rwanda today. However, social persecution, discrimination, marginalization, threats, and intimidation towards survivors of the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi prevail on a popular level amongst many Rwandans. Genocide survivors are targeted for physical and psychological torture and have been attacked and killed in various parts of the country. Fifteen years after the genocide many lack physical and psychological security.

Restorative justice and the Rwandan genocide

from Lisa Rea's interview with Dan Van Ness in UNICRI's Freedom from Fear magazine: Do you see healing occurring in the victims? And in the offenders as well? How does the community respond? The healing process is a long and involved one. I think that Umuvumu Tree Project has helped in that process in several ways.

Forgiveness: Human or Divine?

from Josh Ruxin's entry on Huffington Post: Earlier this month the film As We Forgive, a documentary about Rwanda, was released on DVD (check out the trailer here). It does not chronicle the 1994 genocide, but what has come after: Rwanda's struggle to rebuild itself.

the vision of restorative justice: Pierre Allard

Thank you so much for posting these videos of the interviews with Pierre Allard, Former Chaplain General and Assistant Commissioner of Corrections in Canada. His [...]

Interview with Pierre Allard on Rwanda and DRC

Following are three video segments of an interview with Pierre Allard on the television programme 100 Huntley Street. Pierre Allard was formerly Chaplain General and Assistant Commissioner of Corrections Canada. Since his retirement he and his wife Judy have been living and working in Rwanda and the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Book Review: As We Forgive

Justice in Rwanda

This is a very interesting piece. First, I was very glad to see the subject of Rwanda's genocide and restorative justice processes being covered in [...]

How restorative is Rwanda's justice?

From Ben Buchwalter's entry on Mother Jones: With the help of $44 million from the US government, Rwanda decided last week to extend its multi-layered judicial system for another year. The system is comprised of an international criminal tribunal for the most heinous criminals associated with the 1994 genocide, and the semi-traditional gacaca courts, which practice restorative justice on the community level. The extension has been praised because it gives the government a chance to determine the innocence or guilt of many of the alleged criminals that remain untried. But Hutus claim that the Rwandan government is partial to the country's Tutsi minority—largely the victims of the 1994 genocide—and that the process is fueled by revenge, not justice. Is the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government manipulating the courts for its own political and ethnic gain with US dollars?