Rebuilding Rwandan society: justice, unity and remembrance

25 min

Thirty years of rebuilding

The timeline lists the main measures the Government of Rwanda and the United Nations took after 1994. Read it, then sort the measures into four groups: justice, unity and reconciliation, remembrance and protection of the truth, and support for survivors.

Definition

Gacaca: community courts that tried most genocide cases from 2002 to 2012. They were inspired by a traditional way of settling disputes, and the name refers to the grass on which community members sat. The judges were elected inyangamugayo, people of integrity.

Reconciliation: rebuilding trust and peaceful relations between people after a conflict, based on truth, justice and forgiveness.

Community service (TIG): work for the public, such as building houses or roads, which some convicted people did instead of part of their prison sentence. TIG comes from the French travaux d'intérêt général.

Genocide ideology (in Law N° 59 of 2018): a public act, in speech, writing, images or any other way, that shows an ideology supporting or calling for the destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

1. Justice: Gacaca, national courts and the ICTR

Justice worked at three levels. The ICTR in Arusha tried the leaders and planners; it indicted 93 people before it closed in 2015, and the IRMCT continues to track fugitives and supervise sentences. Rwanda's national courts tried thousands of cases, especially the most serious. And Gacaca courts tried most of the rest.

How Gacaca worked. Each community elected its own judges. Hearings were held in public, usually once a week, at cell and sector level. Survivors, witnesses and the accused all spoke. People who confessed fully and asked for forgiveness could receive lighter sentences, part of which could be served as community service (TIG).
Results. According to the National Service of Gacaca Courts, about 12,100 courts tried 1,958,634 cases between 2002 and 2012.
Strengths. Trials were fast and close to the people; many families learned where their relatives had been killed and could bury them with dignity; confessions revealed the truth; prisons were emptied.
Criticisms. Human Rights Watch and other observers pointed to judges with little legal training, limited rights for the accused to defend themselves, and some false accusations. Some survivors felt the sentences were too light, and some witnesses were threatened.

Worked example: evaluating Gacaca

Question: "Gacaca was a success." To what extent do you agree? (6 marks)

For: about 1.96 million cases were tried in ten years, which ordinary courts could never have done; trials in the community revealed the truth about many killings and let families bury their relatives.

Against: untrained judges and weak defence rights led to some unfair trials; some survivors felt the sentences were too light.

Judgement: largely a success in delivering justice quickly and revealing the truth, which helped reconciliation, though not perfect in protecting the rights of every accused person. A judgement backed by evidence on both sides earns the top marks.

2. Unity and reconciliation

One identity. Ethnic labels were removed from identity cards, and the Constitution forbids discrimination and divisionism. Rwandans are encouraged to see themselves first as Rwandans.
The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), created in 1999, organised dialogue, research and civic education, including ingando solidarity camps. Its work, with that of CNLG, FARG and the Itorero commission, passed to the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE) in 2021.
Ndi Umunyarwanda, launched in 2013, invites citizens to speak openly about the past and to build a shared Rwandan identity.
Itorero trains citizens, especially young people, in values such as patriotism, integrity and service.
Home-grown solutions such as Abunzi mediators, Umuganda community work and Girinka (one cow per poor family) bring neighbours to work and decide together.

A source on reconciliation. The NURC measured reconciliation through a national survey, the Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer.

Analysing the source. The overall score rose from 82.3% in 2010 to 94.7% in 2020. The same 2020 survey found that 98.2% of respondents saw themselves as Rwandans first. Like every source, it should be read critically: it was produced by a government commission, and some independent researchers advise caution when interpreting attitude surveys. Historians compare it with other evidence, such as court records, research and testimonies.

3. Remembrance and protecting the truth

Commemoration (Kwibuka) each year from 7 April, the memorial sites (Lesson 3) and the archives keep the truth alive. The law protects it too. Law N° 59 of 2018 on the crime of genocide ideology and related crimes applies to the genocide against the Tutsi and to any other genocide recognised by the United Nations. It punishes:

Crime	Examples of what the law forbids
Genocide ideology	Public acts that support or call for destroying a group
Denial	Saying it was not genocide, that it was not planned, or that there was a "double genocide"; distorting the facts to mislead
Minimisation	Playing down how serious it was, or giving false numbers of victims
Justification	Praising, supporting or trying to excuse genocide
Related crimes	Destroying evidence or memorial sites; harassing, mocking or insulting a person because they are a survivor

For genocide ideology and for denial, the penalty is five to seven years in prison and a fine of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandan francs. The law counts an act as "public" when it is done before a gathering, but also when it is posted on social media or sent as a message.

4. Support for survivors and rebuilding lives

The FARG fund, created in 1998, paid school fees, health insurance and housing for vulnerable survivors, especially orphans and widows; this support continues under MINUBUMWE. Counselling and trauma services were expanded through health centres and survivors' associations. Programmes for former combatants helped soldiers return to civilian life. Economic plans such as Vision 2020 aimed to reduce poverty, so that every Rwandan could share in the recovery.

Discuss

Justice, truth and forgiveness are all needed for reconciliation. Can a country have one without the others? Use Gacaca as your example.

Tip

Four headings for "measures" questions: Justice (ICTR, national courts, Gacaca), Unity (NURC and MINUBUMWE, Ndi Umunyarwanda, Itorero), Truth (Kwibuka, memorials, Law N° 59 of 2018), Support (FARG, counselling, reintegration). Two facts under each heading make a complete answer.

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Practice

In which years did the Gacaca courts begin and close?
What were inyangamugayo?
How many cases did the Gacaca courts try?
Name the ministry that took over the work of NURC and CNLG in 2021.
Give two acts that count as genocide denial under Law N° 59 of 2018.
By how many percentage points did the Reconciliation Barometer score rise from 2010 to 2020? Show your working.
Explain how confessions in Gacaca helped both justice and reconciliation.
Someone shares a post online claiming that there was a "double genocide". Explain why this is harmful and how the law treats it.

Show answersHide answers

Pilot courts began on 18 June 2002; the courts closed on 18 June 2012.
Judges elected by their communities as people of integrity, who served in the Gacaca courts.
1,958,634 cases (about 1.96 million).
The Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE).
Any two: saying it was not genocide; saying it was not planned; claiming there was a "double genocide"; distorting the facts to mislead the public.
94.7 − 82.3 = 12.4 percentage points.
Confessions revealed the truth about what happened and where victims' bodies were, so cases were solved and families could bury their dead; asking for forgiveness opened the way to rebuilding relations between survivors and perpetrators.
It denies the truth that the Tutsi were targeted for destruction, insults survivors and can spread genocide ideology again. Under Article 5 of Law N° 59 of 2018 it is genocide denial, punishable by five to seven years in prison and a fine; a social media post counts as a public act.

1Thirty years of rebuilding

21. Justice: Gacaca, national courts and the ICTR

32. Unity and reconciliation

43. Remembrance and protecting the truth

54. Support for survivors and rebuilding lives

6Discuss