Gacaca Courts

Open-air community trials in Rwanda, used to prosecute those accused of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide. [Gacaca derives from the Kinyarwanda word for "grass" or "lawn".]

Reporting for The Guardian, Homa Khaleeli wrote:

In the shade of an acacia tree, on benches borrowed from a nearby church, Kalisa Surayimani has just been appealing against a life sentence alongside 10 relatives. One of Rwanda’s final gacaca courts – the community trials set up to try those accused of taking part in the country’s 1994 genocide. Between them Kalisa and his family have been convicted of killing more than 100 people.

Established in 2001, gacaca courts represent a unique experiment in collaborative justice. Based on the traditional system for settling local disputes, the judges are “people of integrity” from the community; the trials take place in the open air (named after the grass on which they are held) with survivors and witnesses raising their hands if they want to interject.

According to Khaleeli, all but those accused of actually organizing the genocide are tried in Gacaca courts:

For many Rwandans they are a source of pride, offering not only justice, but reconciliation. Defendants are given shorter sentences in exchange for confessing and are encouraged to seek forgiveness from the victim’s family. Survivors, in return, can finally discover the fate of their loved ones. …

Critics of this open-air justice have questioned the impartiality of the elders who conduct the trials and, Khaleeli reported, Amnesty International states that gacaca courts cannot be considered fair by international standards.

[Further information is available from the National Service of Gacaca Jurisdiction.]