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How Rwanda judged its genocide






Since 2001, the gacaca community courts have been the centrepiece of Rwanda’s justice and reconciliation process.
Nearly every adult Rwandan has participated in the trials, but lawyers are banned from any official involvement. Human
rights organisations fiercely opposed the use of gacaca for trying genocide cases, on the grounds that it fell short of
international legal standards of fairness. Much criticism reflects legal rigidity towards the unprecedented challenges
confronting post-genocide Rwanda – and a limited understanding of the aims of the community courts. Gacaca
was inevitably imperfect, but also highly ambitious and innovative. While the full impact of the process will not be
apparent for many years, gacaca has delivered benefits to Rwandans in the spheres of justice, truth and democratic
participation. Other societies confronting the aftermath of mass conflict could learn much from Rwanda’s approach to
local justice.

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  1. But the Gacaca courts targeted Hutus communities. No members of Rwandan Patriotic Front was judged by the Gacaca courts.

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-“The enemies of Freedom do not argue ; they shout and they shoot.”

-“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

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