Genocide, Justice, and Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts

Brehm, Hollie Nyseth; Uggen, Christopher; Gasanabo, Jean damascÈne

doi:10.1177/1043986214536660

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Analysis of enforced legal waiting highlights specific lacunae that are built into legal documents, thus emphasizing further the limitations of formal legalistic analyses (see Thomson and Nagy ). The constraints of document‐based analyses warrant particular mention given that now that the gacaca process is over, the Government of Rwanda has partnered with nongovernment organizations in several countries (including Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands) to digitize the archives, beckoning new phases of research in the postgenocide legal architecture and its effects (e.g., Nyseth‐Brehm, Uggen, and Gasanabo ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociality of Enforced Waiting in Rwanda's Postgenocide Legal Architecture

Doughty

2017

PoLAR

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On an afternoon in 2007, I sat with several hundred residents in rural southern Rwanda during yet another gacaca (grassroots genocide courts) session, in which suspects from the 1994 genocide were tried weekly among their neighbors before locally elected judges. As the long afternoon stretched with the now-familiar back-and-forth of competing versions of the past between case participants, the presiding judge suddenly interrupted the proceedings. He pointed to a young man standing at the edge of the assembled crowd, and sent him off to fetch a witness who had not responded to the official summons to attend.As I scanned the horseshoe-shaped group of attendees during this enforced waiting that I had come to expect on gacaca day, two women, Alice and Odile, caught my attention.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociality of Enforced Waiting in Rwanda's Postgenocide Legal Architecture

Doughty

2017

PoLAR

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“…In addition, there are numerous consequences of the experiences of the Genocide that are likely to have mediated the effects of traumatic events and PTSS 20 years later, ranging from individual‐level socioeconomic status to national political movements. One particularly important example is local Gacaca trials, which operated between 2002 and 2012 and were intended to provide a transparent process of accountability and large‐scale retributive justice to Genocide victims (Clark, 2010; Nyseth Brehm et al., 2014). Likewise, the effects of traumatic events likely differed on the basis of numerous effect modifiers in addition to gender.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Differences in Traumatic Experiences and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

Platt

Pozen

Ntaganira

et al. 2021

Journal of Traumatic Stress

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The effects of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi are widespread and long‐lasting, but little is known about how posttraumatic consequences differ regarding gender. In the present study, we estimated the associations between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in a Rwandan community sample and examined whether the associations differed by gender. The sample comprised 498 adults (75.2% women) living in Rwanda's Huye District in 2011. We used a validated self‐report checklist to assess the eight most frequent traumatic experiences during the Genocide. The PTSD Checklist–Civilian version (PCL‐C) was used to assess PTSS. Associations between trauma exposure and PTSS were estimated using structural equation modeling (SEM), with additional SEMs stratified by gender. The prevalence of exposure to each traumatic event ranged from 15.1% to 64.5%, with more severe PTSS among individuals who reported personal physical injury, β = .76, 95% CI [0.54, 0.98]; witnessing sexual/physical violence against a loved one, β = .51, 95% CI [0.20, 0.81]; a close relative/friend's death, β = .54, 95% CI [0.24, 0.83]; property destruction, β = .35, 95% CI [0.048, 0.51]; or a family member's death due to illness, β = .21, 95% CI [0.00, 0.41]. Men who saw people killed and women who witnessed sexual/physical violence against a close family member reported elevated PTSS. The psychiatric impact of the Rwandan Genocide continues into the 21st century. Increased attention should be paid to the long‐term and demographic patterns of distress and disorder, especially in the absence of widespread clinical mental health services.

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“…Rwanda's post-genocide Gacaca courts can be considered a combination of restorative justice and retributive justice (Lambourne, 2016). Just under two million genocide cases were heard, and 130,000 perpetrators were incarcerated as a result of Gacaca processes (Nyseth-Brehm, Uggen & Gasanabo, 2014).…”

Section: Acknowledgment and Apologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciliation potential of Rwandans convicted of genocide

Barnes-Ceeney¹,

Leitch²,

Gideon³

2019

The International Journal Of Restorative Justice

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This study examines the reconciliation potential of Rwandans incarcerated for the crime of genocide. Utilising survey data from 302 male and female prisoners incarcerated in the Rwandan Correctional System, this study explores genocide perpetrators' depression, anxiety, anger-hostility and somatic symptoms, levels of posttraumatic stress, degree of social support and attitudes towards unity and reconciliation. The data demonstrate that engaging in killing can have deep psychological impacts for genocide perpetrators. The data indicate that although more than two decades have passed since the genocide, perpetrators are experiencing high levels of genocide-related posttraumatic suffering. Perpetrators are persistently re-experiencing genocide, purposefully avoiding thoughts and memories of the genocide, and experiencing physical and emotional arousal and reactivity. The sample had a strong desire for all Rwandans to live in peace and unity. There is, however, an urgent need for physical and mental health interventions, as well as services that facilitate the rebuilding of family relationships well in advance of release. Improving the physical and mental well-being of both perpetrators of the genocide and victims can only be a positive development as Rwanda continues to build a unified, reconciled and resilient future.

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Genocide, Justice, and Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

Sociality of Enforced Waiting in Rwanda's Postgenocide Legal Architecture

Sociality of Enforced Waiting in Rwanda's Postgenocide Legal Architecture

Gender Differences in Traumatic Experiences and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

Reconciliation potential of Rwandans convicted of genocide

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