Article contents
Speaking of Legacy: Toward an Ethos of Modesty at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Extract
Pour qu’un héritage soit réellement grand, il faut que la main du défunt ne se voie pas.
In 2014, a year of memorial ceremonies commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) marked its own twentieth year with the launch of a “legacy website.” With the closing of the Tribunal scheduled for December 2015, the question of its legacy had become increasingly pressing. The website premiered a video that “celebrates the accomplishments of the ICTR” in a “visually compelling” style. Blurring the distinction between documentary account and film trailer, the video begins with iconic images of the African continent: a boy rolling a hoop down a dirt road; laborers ferrying wares; women in colorful dresses tending children. These scenes of daily life are interrupted by images of men wielding machetes and corpses, interspersed with the figure of the radio, reminding the viewer that the 1994 genocide was encouraged through broadcasts inciting Hutus to take up arms against their Tutsi neighbors. The video lists the Tribunal’s contributions to international criminal law, but also describes a much broader impact: “a record of legal reform in Rwanda, and outreach, education, legal training, and healing.” Young boys leap into a body of water to punctuate the final term, suggesting the hope of a new Rwanda. The narrator proclaims, “today in Rwanda, it’s safe to listen to the radio again: the sound is of a nation rebuilding.” The film’s final words reach beyond the Rwandan context, affirming that ours is “a world pushing forward despite great imperfection, each day closer to a time when international law offers justice to all people, everywhere.”
- Type
- Symposium on the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society of International Law 2016
References
1 René Char, Feuillets D’hypnos 166 (Cid Corman, trans. 1973) (1948) (“For an inheritance to be really great, the hand of the defunct must not be seen.”).
2 Press Release, ICTR, 20 Years Challenging Impunity—UN-ICTR Launches Legacy Website and New Tribute Video (Nov. 6, 2014), at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/en/news/20-years-challenging-impunity-%E2%80%93-un-ictr-launches-legacy-website-and-new-tribute-video. The video is available at http://unictr.unmict.org/ [hereinafter ICTR Legacy Video].
3 Letter Dated 15 May 2015 from the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Addressed to the President of the Security Council, Report on the Completion Strategy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as of 5 May 2015, UN Doc. S/2015/340, paras. 1, 5 (May 15, 2015).
4 ICTR, ICTR Legacy Project Proposals, at http://www.unmict.org/ictr-remembers/docs/legacy_projects.pdf.
5 Recognizing the role of these trials in promoting accountability is not necessarily the same as praising them; much commentary has noted serious issues with the enforcement of fair trial rights and the application of the death penalty.See, e.g., Drumbl, Mark A., Rule of Law Amid Lawlessness: Counseling the Accused in Rwanda’s Domestic Genocide Trials, 29 Col. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 545 (1998)Google Scholar.
6 Their contribution to reconciliation is a matter of scholarly debate. Compare Clark, Philip, After Genocide: Democracy in Rwanda, 20 Years On, 20 Juncture 308, 310 (2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar with Ingelaere, Bert, “Does the Truth Pass Across the Fire Without Burning?” Locating the Short Circuit in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts, 47 J. Mod. Afr. Stud. 507 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Kanyangara, Patrick, Rimé, Bernard, Paez, Dario & Yzerbyt, Vincent, Trust, Individual Guilt, Collective Guilt and Dispositions Toward Reconciliation Among Rwandan Survivors and Prisoners Before and After Their Participation in Postgenocide Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, 2 J. Soc. & Pol. Psychol. 401 (2014)Google Scholar.
7 On which, see, for example, Longman, Timothy, Pham, Phuong & Weinstein, Harvey M., Connecting Justice to Human Experience: Attitudes Toward Accountability and Reconciliation in Rwanda, in My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity 206 (Stover, Eric & Wein-stein, Harvey M. eds., 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Timothy Longman & Théonéste Rutagengwa, Memory, Identity, and Community in Rwanda, in My Neighbor, My Enemy 162.
8 On which, see, for example, Reyntjens, Filip, Chronique Politique du Rwanda, 2014–2015, in L’Afrique Des Grands Lacs: Annuaire 2014–2015 251 (Reyntjens, Filip, Vandeginste, Stef & Marysse, S. eds., 2015)Google Scholar.
9 ICTR Press Release, supra note 2.
10 Not having conducted research in Rwanda, we do not contribute new empirical data. Rather, our aim is to reflect upon published knowledge on the legacy of the ICTR in Rwanda. The views of conflict-affected populations tend to feature at the margins of these narratives. This account cannot remedy that marginalization, which would require shifting from institutional points of departure and beginning from the views and circumstances of the Rwandan population rather than from the ICTR.
11 Dittrich, Viviane E., Legacies in the Making: Assessing the Institutionalized Legacy Endeavor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, in The Sierra Leone Special Court and its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law 663 (Jalloh, Charles C. ed., 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Office of the UN High Comm’r for Human Rights, Rule of Law Tools for Post conflict States, Maximizing the Legacy of Hybrid Courts, at 4–5, UN Sales No. HR/PUB/08/2 (2008).
13 Zygmunt Bauman, Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies 2 (1992).
14 Id.
15 Legal rhetorician Marianne Constable notes the “peculiar temporality” of speech acts such as legal decisions that will turn out to have had particular effects, such as the phenomenon of establishing legal precedent through judgments. See Marianne Constable, Our Word Is Our Bond: How Legal Speech Acts 73 (2014).
16 In her work on what she terms “revisionary practices,” such as truth commissions and international criminal trials, philosopher Jill Stauffer illustrates how the meaning of the past in the present changes over time. See Jill Stauffer, Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard 112 (2015).
17 Bauman, supra note 13, at 54.
18 U.N. Secretary-General, Budget for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States Between 1 January and 31 December 1994 for the Biennium 2004 –2005, Annex, UN Doc. A/58/269 (Aug. 12, 2003).
19 S.C. Res. 1966 (Dec. 22, 2010).
20 See also Nigel Eltringham, A Legacy Deferred? The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda at 20 Years (Apr. 29, 2014), available at http://www.e-ir.info/2014/04/29/a-legacy-deferred-the-international-criminal-tribunal-for-rwanda-at-20-years/.
21 U.N. Charter Art. 39.
22 S.C. Res. 955 (Nov. 8, 1994).
23 Id. at pmbl.
24 For diverging expectations among Security Council members, see U.N. SCOR, 49th Sess., 3453d mtg., UN Doc. S/PV.3453 (Nov. 8, 1994).
25 ICTR Press & Public Affairs Unit, Learning From the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: The Legacy (2009).
26 ICTR officials themselves have widely diverging views on the Tribunal’s mandate. See Eltringham, Nigel, “When We Walk Out, What Was It All About?”: Views on New Beginnings from Within the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 45 Dev. & Change 543 (2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Nicola Palmer, Courts in Conflict: Interpreting the Layers of Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda (2015).
27 ICTR Legacy Video, supra note 2.
28 Learning From the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, supra note 25 at 39.
29 Judge Dennis Byron’s Address to the UN General Assembly, ICTR Newsletter, Oct. 2008, at 1, at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/sites/unictr.org/files/news/newsletters/oct08.pdf. Based on research conducted within the ICTR, however, Palmer asserts that Tribunal officials are divided over whether creating a historical record is part of the ICTR’s mandate and on whether the Tribunal has accomplished this. See Palmer, supra note 26, at 64–67.
30 See ICTR, ICTR Milestones, at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/en/ictr-milestones; ICTR Legacy Video, supra note 2; Learning From the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, supra note 25; Byron, Dennis C. M., Looking at Legacy and Looking Back on the Legacy Symposium, 14 New Eng. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 319 (2008)Google Scholar; Møse, Erik, Main Achievements of the ICTR, 3 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 920 (2005)Google Scholar.
31 Press Release, ICTR, ICTR Prosecutor Releases Best Practices Manual on Referral of International Criminal Cases to National Jurisdictions (Feb. 11, 2015), at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/en/news/ictr-prosecutor-releases-best-practices-manual-referral-international-criminal-cases-national.
32 Id.
33 ICTR Legacy Video, supra note 2.
34 See, e.g., Nsanzuwera, Francois-Xavier, The ICTR Contribution to National Reconciliation, 3 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 944 (2005)Google Scholar (setting forth theories as to how the ICTR may contribute to reconciliation).
35 See also Koller, David S., The Faith of the International Criminal Lawyer, 40 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 1019 (2008)Google Scholar; Nouwen, Sarah M. H., Justifying Justice, in The Cambridge Companion to International Law 327 (Crawford, James & Koskenniemi, Martti eds., 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stahn, Carsten, Between “Faith” and “Facts”: By What Standards Should We Assess International Criminal Justice?, 25 Leiden J. Int’l L. 251 (2012)Google Scholar.
36 See Ingelaere, Bert, Do We Understand Life after Genocide? Center and Periphery in the Construction of Knowledge in Post-genocide Rwanda, 53 Afr. Stud. Rev. 41 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Longman & Rutagengwa, supra note 7, at 164.
37 See Ingelaere, supra note 6, at 522; Ingelaere, supra note 36, at 52–54; Johan Pottier, Reimagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century (2002); Filip Reyntjens, Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda 228–29 (2013).
38 Thomson, Susan, Getting Close to Rwandans Since the Genocide: Studying Everyday Life in Highly Politicized Research Settings, 53 Afr. Stud. Rev. 19, 22–23 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Thomson, Susan, Reeducation for Reconciliation: Participant Observations on Ingando, in Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights After Mass Violence 331 (Straus, Scott & Waldorf, Lars eds., 2011)Google Scholar.
39 Reyntjens, supra note 37, at xv, 125–26.
40 See, e.g., Larissa van den Herik, The Contribution of the Rwanda Tribunal to the Development of International Law (2005); Jallow, Hassan Bubacar, The Contribution of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to the Development of International Criminal Law, in After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post conflict Reconstruction, and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond 261 (Philip|Clark & Kaufman, Zachary D. eds., 2008)Google Scholar.
41 See ICTR Milestones, supra note 30.
42 See sources cited at note 40, supra. See also, Akhavan, Payam, The Crime of Genocide in the ICTR Jurisprudence, 3 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 989 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Askin, Kelly D., Gender Crimes Jurisprudence in the ICTR: Positive Developments, 3 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 1007 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and articles by John Cerone, Suzanne Chenault, and Catherine A. MacK innon, in 14 New Eng. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 211 (2008).
43 Eltringham, supra note 20.
44 See Christensen, Mikkel Jarle, From Symbolic Surge to Closing Courts: The Transformation of International Criminal Justice and its Professional Practices, 43 Int’l J. Law, Crime & Just. 609 (2015)Google Scholar.
45 See also Morten Bergsmo & Philippa Webb, Some Lessons for the International Criminal Court from the International Judicial Response to the Rwandan Genocide, in After Genocide, supra note 40, at 351.
46 ICTR Legacy Video, supra note 2.
47 Sadat, Leila N., The Contribution of the ICTR to the Rule of Law, in Promoting Accountability Under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa: Essays in Honour of Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow 118, 129 (Jalloh, Charles C. & Marong, Alhagi B. M. eds., 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (also refer ring to a speech by Judge Meron to that effect).
48 As of Mid-November 2015, the ICTR reported that it had indicted ninety-three individuals and concluded proceedings for seventy-eight accused (including four individuals whose cases were transferred to other jurisdictions, two instances in which the indictment was withdrawn, and two instances in which the accused died before judgment), with six individuals’ cases remaining on appeal. The Tribunal also transferred the cases of nine fugitives to other jurisdictions. ICTR, ICTR Key Figures, at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/sites/unictr.org/files/publications/ictr-key-figures-en.pdf.
49 See, e.g., Møse, supra note 30, at 933. See also ICTR/Legacy – Rwanda Tribunal Has Blazed a Trail Despite Its Weaknesses, Says Expert, Hirondelle News, Dec. 31, 2013, at http://www.hirondellenews.com/ictr-rwanda/404-ictr-institutional-news/34529-311213-ictrlegacy-rwanda-tribunal-has-blazed-a-trail-despite-its-weaknesses-says-expert.
50 Alison Des Forges, “Leave None to Tell the Story”: Genocide in Rwanda, 16, 734 (1999).
51 Carla Del Ponte with Chuck Sudetic, Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations With Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity, A Memoir 229 (2009).
52 S.C. Res. 1503, paras. 8–9 (Aug. 28, 2003).
53 Statement by Hassan B. Jallow, Prosecutor of the ICTR, to the UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/PV.5904, at 11 ( Jun. 4, 2008).
54 Victor Peskin, Victor’s Justice Revisited: Rwandan Patriotic Front Crimes and the Prosecutorial Endgame at the ICTR, in Remaking Rwanda, supra note 38, at 180.
55 See Haskell, Leslie & Waldorf, Lars, The Impunity Gap of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Causes and Consequences, 34 Hastings Int’l & Comp.L.Rev. 49 (2011)Google Scholar. On whether Del Ponte had previously backed out of such a “deal” with the Rwandan government, see Kingsley C. Moghalu, Rwanda’s Genocide: The Politics Of Global Justice 145 (2005). For the denial of the existence of a deal, see Del Ponte, supra note 51, at 231–34.
56 See, e.g., Moghalu, supra note 55, at 173; ICTR/Legacy, supra note 49.
57 Peskin, supra note 54, at 176.
58 See Eugenia Zorbas, Aid Dependence and Policy Independence: Explaining the Rwandan Paradox, in Remaking Rwanda, supra note 38, at 104.
59 See the open letter Ensuring ICTR Prosecutions for RPF War Crimes to the UN Secretary-General, President Barack Obama, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, dated June 1, 2009, signed by fifty Rwanda scholars, available at http://uk-africa.blogspot.com/2009/06/ensuring-ictr-prosecutions-for-rpf-war.html.
60 For a more optimistic reading, see the comments of Professor Guichaoua in ICTR/Legacy, supra note 49.
61 Responsibility for three of them has been handed over to the Residual Mechanism; Rwanda would try the other five. United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, Searching for the Fugitives, at http://www.unmict.org/en/cases/searching-fugitives.
62 Caroline Buisman & Kate Gibson, Acquitted by Law, Prosecuted by Propaganda, Just. in Conflict (Mar. 31, 2014), at http://justiceinconflict.org/2014/03/31/acquitted-by-law-prosecuted-by-propaganda/.
63 See Reyntjens, Filip, Chronique Politique du Rwanda, 2012–2013, in L’afrique Des Grands Lacs: Annu Aire 2012–2013 287, 300 (Reyntjens, Filip, Vandeginste, Stef & Verpoorten, M. eds., 2013)Google Scholar.
64 See, e.g., Joseph Rwagatare, ICTR Acquittals Shocking but Expected, The New Times, Feb. 11, 2013, at http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2013-02-11/62785/. See also Beth S. Lyons, Acquitted but Still Not Free, Intlawgrrls (May 19, 2014), at http://ilg2.org/2014/05/19/acquitted-but-still-not-free/.
65 Address by Judge Vagn Joensen, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to the United Nations Security Council (Jun. 3, 2015), at http://unictr.unmict.org/en/news/address-judge-vagn-joensen-president-international-criminal-tribunal-rwanda-united-nations.
66 Chine Labbé, Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala & Thomas Escritt, Rwanda Court’s Forgotten Men Pose Challenge to International Justice, Reuters, Sept. 28, 2014, at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/28/uk-un-justice-insight-idUKKCN0HN0NI20140928.
67 On the role of NGO advocacy concerning victim compensation, see Haslam, Emily, Law, Civil Society and Contested Justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Paths to International Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives 57 (Dembour, Marie-Bénédicte & Kelly, Tobias eds., 2007)Google Scholar.
68 See, e.g., Press Release, Office of the Prosecutor, Address to the Security Council by Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (Nov. 24, 2000), at http://www.icty.org/sid/7803; Press Release, ICTR, ICTR President Calls for Compensation for Victims (Oct. 31, 2002), at http://unictr.unmict.org/en/news/ictr-president-calls-compensation-victims. Note, however, that ICTR judges advocated against changing the ICTR statute to incorporate provisions for victims as in the ICC Statute. See Letter Dated 14 December 2000 from the Secretary-General Addressed to the President of the Security Council (annexing Letter dated 9 November 2000 from the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Addressed to the Secretary-General), UN Doc. S/2000/1198 (Dec. 15, 2000).
69 See Moghalu, Kingsley C., International Humanitarian Law from Nuremberg to Rome: The Weighty Precedents of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 14 Pace Int’l L. Rev. 273, 302 (2002)Google Scholar.
70 Whether victim participation should in fact be included as a “best practice” in international criminal law remains to be seen. For an account of some of the challenges in “juridifying” victimhood as a category of legal identity, see Kendall, Sara & Nouwen, Sarah, Representational Practices: The Gap Between Juridified and Abstract Victim-hood, 76 L. & Contemp. Probs. 235 (2014)Google Scholar.
71 Report on the Completion Strategy, supra note 3.
72 He later retracted this. See Convicted Ex-Prime Minister Jean Kambanda Publishes Damning Portrait of Rwanda Tribunal, Hirondelle News (Aug. 7, 2013), at http://www.hirondellenews.com/ictr-rwanda/387-trials-ended/kambanda-jean/34309-70813-convicted-ex-prime-minister-jean-kambanda-publishes-damning-portrait-of-rwanda-tribunal.
73 Prosecutor v. Édouard Karemera, et al., Case No. ICTR-98-44-AR73(C), Appeal on Judgment, para. 35 (Jun. 16, 2006).
74 Press Release, ICTR, ICTR Appeals Chamber Takes Judicial Notice of Genocide in Rwanda (Jun. 20, 2006), at http://www.unmict.unictr.org/en/news/ictr-appeals-chamber-takes-judicial-notice-genocide-rwanda.
75 See Richard Ashby Wilson, Writing History in International Criminal Trials 9 (2011).
76 See Moghalu, supra note 55, at 203–04; Klaus Bachmann & Aleksander Fatic, The Un International Criminal Tribunals: Transition Without Justice? 242–43 (2015).
77 Pottier, supra note 37; Gérard Prunier, Rwanda’s Ghosts Refuse to Be Buried, BBC Focus, Apr. 8, 2009, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7981964.stm.
78 Haskell & Waldorf, supra note 55, at 79.
79 On the role of archives more generally, see Campbell, Kirsten, The Laws of Memory: The ICTY, the Archive, and Transitional Justice, 22 Soc. & Legal Stud. 247 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
80 Adami, Tom A., “Who Will Be Left to Tell the Tale?” Record keeping and International Criminal Jurisprudence, 7 Archival Sci. 213, 217 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (emphasis added; footnote omitted).
81 See Edmund Kagire, Rwanda Presses for ICTR Records, The East African, Dec. 20, 2014, at http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Rwanda-presses-for-ICTR-records/-/2558/2563806/-/14sscne/-/index.html; Edwin Musoni, Experts on Why Rwanda Should Take Custody of ICTR Archives, The New Times, Feb. 10, 2015, at http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2015-02-10/185831/.
82 Rwanda/UN – Kigali Reiterates Its Request to Shelter ICTR’s Archives, Hirondelle News, Oct. 21, 2009, at http://www.hirondellenews.com/ictr-rwanda/410-rwanda-other-countries/23678-en-en-211009-rwandaun-kigali-reiterates-its-request-to-shelter-ictrs-archives1272912729. See also Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations, Statement for the Consideration of the 20th Annual Report of the ICTR and ICTY by First Counselor, Sana Maboneza (Oct. 12, 2015), available at http://rwandaun.org/site/2015/10/12/statement-for-the-consideration-of-the-20th-annual-report-of-the-ictr-and-icty-by-first-counselor-sana-maboneza/.
83 Communiqué of the Consultative Meeting on the Legacy, Residual Functions and Archives of the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - UNICTR, Presented to the Advisory Committee on the Archives for the UN Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia & Rwanda, Arusha, Tanzania, Aug. 16–17, 2008, available at http://www.africafiles.org/printableversion.asp?id=18821.
84 Report of the Secretary-General on the Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of the Options for Possible Locations for the Archives of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Seat of the Residual Mechanism(s) for the Tribunals, May 21, 2009, 46, para. 201, UN Doc. S/2009/258.
85 Id., para. 216.
86 Id.
87 S.C Res. 1966 (Dec. 22, 2010) (annexing the Statute of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Arts. 3, 27, para. 2).
88 See, e.g., International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Complementarity in Action: Lessons Learned from the ICTR Prosecutor’s Referral of International Criminal Cases to National Jurisdictions for Trial 2–3 (2015), at http://unictr.unmict.org/sites/unictr.org/files/legal-library/150210_complementarity_in_action.pdf.
89 Other states have also amended domestic law to facilitate referrals; for example, the Dutch Criminal Code was amended to this end. See Wet van 8 December 2011 tot Wijziging van het Wetboek van Strafrecht, het Wetboek van Strafvordering, de Wet Internationale Misdrijven, de Wet Overlevering Inzake Oorlogsmisdrijven en de Uitleveringswet (verruiming mogelijkheden tot opsporing en vervolging van internationale misdrijven), available at https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2011-605.html, and the Explanatory Note to that legislation available at https://zoek officielebekendmakingen.nl/behandelddossier/32475/kst-32475-3?resultIndex=19&sorttype=1&sortorder=4.
90 See, e.g., Brown et al. v. Rwanda, [2009] EWHC 770, Judgment, Appeal Against Extradition.
91 Seventh Annual Report of the ICTR, for the Period from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002, July 2, 2002, para. 10, UN Doc. S/2002/733; Eighth Annual Report of the ICTR, for the period from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003, July 11, 2003, para. 6, UN Doc. S/2003/707.
92 S.C. Res. 1503, supra note 52, at pmbl (8th recital).
93 By June 2010, the ICTR Prosecutor had transferred fifty-five such files to Rwanda. See Complementarity in Action, supra note 88, at 7, n. 18.
94 For the most recent version, see ICTR Rules of Procedure and Evidence, adopted on Jun. 29, 1996, last Amended May 13, 2015, rule 11 bis (A) and (B). The rule was first introduced in 2002, and substantially amended in 2004, 2005, and, to a lesser extent, 2011.
95 Prosecutor v. Bagaragaza, Case No. ICTR-2005-86-R11bis, Decision on Prosecution’s Motion for Referral to the Kingdom of Norway, para. 7 (May 19, 2006).
96 Organic Law n° 11/2007 of 16/03/2007 Concerning Transfer of Cases to the Republic of Rwanda from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and from Other States, Arts. 21, 24, Official Gazette, Special Issue, Mar. 19, 2007.
97 Organic Law n° 31/2007 of 25/07/2007 Relating to the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Arts. 2–3, Official Gazette, Special Issue, July 25, 2007.
98 See the Rule 11 bis decisions by the Trial Chamber in the Munyakazi, Kanyarukiga, Hategekimana, Gatete, and Kayishema cases, each of which was upheld on appeal (decisions available at http://unictr.unmict.org/en/cases).
99 Complementarity in Action, supra note 88, at 26. See also Amnesty International, Rwanda: Suspects Must Not Be Transferred to Rwandan Courts for Trial until It Is Demonstrated That Trials Will Comply With International Standards Of Justice 5 (2007), at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr47/013/2007/en/.
100 Complementarity in Action, supra note 88, at 26–27, mentions as other examples: revisions of the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure; witness protection services provided by the Witnesses Protection Unit; and the possibility of trial by a bench of three judges (as opposed to a single judge).
101 With respect to the death penalty, Aimé Muyoboke Karimunda has shown how there were already strong abolitionist tendencies within Rwanda, including the RPF’s program, but the ICTR’s involvement helped to expedite the process. Karimunda, Aimé M., The Death Penalty in Rwanda: Surrounding Politics and the ICTR’s Battle for Abolition, in The Politics of the Deathpenalty in countries in Transition 128, 150 (Futamura, Madoka & Bernaz, Nadia eds., 2014)Google Scholar. See also Schabas, William A., African Perspectives on Abolition of the Death Penalty, in The International Sourcebook on Capital Punishment 30, 47 (Schabas, William A. ed., 1997)Google Scholar.
102 See Complementarity in Action, supra note 88, at 27–46. On the donor community’s preference for technocratic justice initiatives in Rwanda’s increasingly oppressive political environment, see Oomen, Barbara, Donor-Driven Justice and Its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda, 36 Dev. & Change 887 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
103 On dependence of the ICTR on Rwanda for implementation of the completion strategy, see also Aptel, Cecile, Closing the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Completion Strategy and Residual Issues, 14 New Eng. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 169, 182 (2008)Google Scholar; Onsea, Inge, The Legacy of the ICTR in Rwanda in the Context of the Completion Strategy: The Impact of Rule 11 bis, in The Effectiveness of International Criminal Justice 173 (Ryngaert, Cedric ed., 2009)Google Scholar.
104 The ICTR experience raises questions as to whether the ICC will be as concerned with its legacy as the ad hoc tribunals have been with theirs. The ICTR’s attention to its legacy was prompted by the Security Council increasing the pressure to finish its cases and close down. Inherent in the idea of a permanent International Criminal Court is that it has no expiration date. While the ICC will leave a legacy in a particular country when it ends its proceedings in that situation, that end date will seldom be as final as with the closure of the ad hoc tribunals.
105 As a nonpermanent member of the Council at the time, Rwanda eventually voted against the resolution establishing the Tribunal because it had several objections to its institutional design. See The Situation Concerning Rwanda, UN Doc. S/PV.3453, 14–16 (Nov. 8, 1994) (statement by Mr. Bakuramutsa).
106 See Stephen A. Lamony, Rwanda and the ICC: Playing Politics with Justice, African Arguments, Oct. 21, 2013, at http://africanarguments.org/2013/10/21/rwanda-and-the-icc-playing-politics-with-justice-by-stephena-lamony/.
107 Robert Mugabe, Rwanda Will Not Join Rome Statute—Justice Minister, Great Lakes Voice, Jul. 31, 2014, at http://greatlakesvoice.com/rwanda-will-not-join-rome-statute-justice-minister/.
108 S.C Res. 1503, supra note 52, at pmbl (3d recital).
109 Ban Ki-Moon, Remarks at the Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, Kigali (Apr. 7, 2014), at http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=7572.
110 Eltringham, supra note 20.
111 Other ICTR officials have rejected the claim that the ICTR has contributed to reconciliation. See Palmer, supra note 26, at 67–68. See also Bernard A. Muna, Former Deputy Prosecutor ICTR, The Early Challenges of Conducting Investigations and Prosecutions Before International Criminal Tribunals, Arusha (Nov. 25–27,2004), at http://ictr-archive09.library.cornell.edu/ENGLISH/colloquium04/muna.html (former ICTR Deputy Prosecutor suggesting that the Tribunal could have contributed to reconciliation, had it not “failed to meet [the] challenge” of enhancing its credibility among the Rwandan people). Some defense lawyers suggest that the Tribunal has done the opposite, arguing that Hutus in the diaspora see the ICTR as a victor’s court. See Eltringham, supra note 26, 544.
112 But see Gallimore, Timothy, The Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and Its Contributions to Reconciliation in Rwanda, 14 New Eng. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 239, 251 (2008)Google Scholar (ICTR spokesperson describing “five major ways” through which the work of the Tribunal may be said to contribute to reconciliation).
113 Adami, supra note 80, at 214. This formulation suggests the ICTR’s legacy will contribute to reconciliation, rather than the Tribunal’s work as such.
114 See the interviews with ICTR officials in Palmer, supra note 26, at 68, and Nsanzuwera, supra note 34, at 948.
115 Palmer, supra note 26, at 68.
116 Møse, supra note 30, at 938; Gallimore, supra note 112, at 254.
117 Gallimore, supra note 112, at 255.
118 Id. at 239.
119 Møse, Erik, The ICTR’s Completion Strategy: Challenges and Possible Solutions, 6 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 667, 678 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Møse, supra note 30, at 938 –39.
120 See Alison des Forges & Timothy Longman, Legal Responses to Genocide in Rwanda, in My Neighbor, My Enemy, supra note 7, at 49, 56 (arguing that the ICTR’s limited outreach may have restricted its contributions to reconciliation).
121 See Kamatali, Jean-Marie, The Challenge of Linking International Criminal Justice and National Reconciliation: The Case of the ICTR, 16 Leiden J. Int’l L. 115 (2003)Google Scholar.
122 Id. at 118, 124 –26.
123 Id. at 122–24; see also Gallimore, supra note 112, at 256.
124 Kamatali, supra note 121, at 121–22.
125 Id. at 131–32.
126 Moghalu, supra note 55, at 207; Haskell & Waldorf, supra note 55, at 75–78.
127 Sadat, supra note 47, 128.
128 See McIntosh, Ian S., A Creative Approach to Measuring Reconciliation in Rwanda, 1 Conflict Trends 33 (2013)Google Scholar.
129 Kamatali, supra note 121, at 116.
130 Longman, Connecting Justice to Human Experience: Attitudes Toward Accountability and Reconciliation in Rwanda, in My Neighbor, My Enemy, supra note 7, at 206.
131 Id. at 219.
132 See also Moghalu, supra note 55, at 202; Gallimore, supra note 112, at 241.
133 Kamatali, supra note 121, at 133.
134 Fletcher, Laurel E. & Weinstein, Harvey M., Violence and Social Repair: Rethinking the Contribution of Justice to Reconciliation, 24 Hum. Rts. Q. 573, 600 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
135 Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms 14 (Sanjeev Khagram, James V. Riker & Kathryn Sikkink eds., 2002).
136 See also Palmer, supra note 26, at 62.
137 See ICTR Legacy Video, supra note 2.
138 In this sense the Tribunal’s mode of address that privileges outsiders over the Rwandan people appears to adopt an orientation that parallels other responsestothe genocide, such as prominent public apologies from political leaders.See McMillan, Nesam, Regret, Remorse and the Work of Remembrance: Official Responses to the Rwandan Genocide, 19 Soc. & Legal Stud. 85 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
139 Jens Meierhenrich, Topographies of Remembering and Forgetting: The Transformation of Lieux de Mémoire in Rwanda, in Remaking Rwanda, supra note 38, at 283.
140 Address to the 70th United Nations General Assembly: Twentieth Annual Report of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by Judge Vagn Joensen, President, Oct. 13, 2015, available at http://unictr.unmict.org/ en/news/address-70th-united-nations-general-assembly-twentieth-annual-report-international-criminal.
141 Meierhenrich, supra note 139.
142 Eltringham, Nigel, “A War Crimes Community?”: The Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Beyond Jurisprudence, 14 New Eng. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 309, 312 (2008)Google Scholar.
143 See Eltringham, supra note 26. For a similar article concerning the legacy of the ICTY, see Mégret, Frédéric, The Legacy of the ICTY as Seen through Some of Its Actors and Observers, 3 Goettingen J. Int’l L. 1011, 1013 (2012)Google Scholar.
144 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, July 17, 1998, 2187 UNTS 90, pmbl, 2d recital.
- 16
- Cited by
Target article
Speaking of Legacy: Toward an Ethos of Modesty at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Related commentaries (10)
Demystifying Political Violence: Some Bequests of ICTY and ICTR
Divided We Stand? The AD HOC Tribunals and the CEE Region
Feminist Legacies
Gender Justice Beyond the Tribunals: From Criminal Accountability to Transformative Justice
Globalizing Justice, Homogenizing Sexual Violence: The Legacy of the ICTY and ICTR in terms of Sexual Violence
How Politics Shapes the Contributions of Justice: Lessons from the ICTY and the ICTR
International Criminal Law as a Spotlight and Black Holes as Constituents of Legacy
Leaving Legacies Open-Ended: An Invitation for an Inclusive Debate on International Criminal Justice
On a Self-Deconstructing Symposium
The Legacy of the ICTY and ICTR in China