INTRODUCTION

Exploring how the Rwandan government and population have responded to the genocide, particularly through their creation of and involvement in gacaca, this book investigates concepts that fit broadly into the field of transitional justice. Transitional justice encompasses a multitude of discrete, though overlapping, and often conflicting themes that concern how societies address periods of conflict and/or repressive rule. At the heart of discussions of transitional justice are questions of what reconstructive objectives such societies should pursue and how they should pursue them. While much transitional justice literature focuses on questions surrounding institutions and processes – often advocating templates, toolkits and menus of options based on historical responses to mass atrocity and presupposing the central aims and actors – this book begins with questions of objectives. In the context of gacaca, it is crucial that we understand how participants in the process interpret its aims, what they expect it to achieve or not achieve, and generally on what basis they determine its success. The purpose of this chapter is to provide some theoretical background to the key concepts that the sources analysed in this book identify as gacaca's objectives.

Given the complexity of issues surrounding rebuilding societies after mass violence, immense contestation over what transitional justice entails is inevitable. Different transitional societies choose different objectives, and often pursue them in very different ways, usually because of political, social, economic and legal constraints after conflict.