According to the IRIN news agency, a Human Rights Watch report has rekindled debate on whether the Rwandan government “betrayed” women who were raped during the 1994 genocide by letting community-based gacaca courts process their cases.
Two major developments are taking place before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda this month. The first involves the arrest of Bernard Munyagishari, an Interahamwe leader who is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape. The second concerns an announcement by the Tribunal that it will deliver judgment in the longest joint trial of six accused on June 24, 2011. Among the accused is the former Rwandan Minister of Family and Women Affairs, who is charged with ordering rape.
The Gacaca Courts tasked with trying perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide will be officially closed in December 2011, the Minister for Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, has said.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found Augustin Bizimungu guilty on six counts of genocide, crimes against humanity for murder, extermination and rape and violations of the Geneva Conventions and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
In 2009, Joseph Mpambara was convicted in the Netherlands of crimes he committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Due to lack of proof, 5 of the 7 charges against him had been dropped, including his alleged involvement in a church massacre and the rape of a Tutsi girl, a decision against which the Dutch prosecutor made an appeal. A decision on the appeal is expected in June.
In March, Amnesty International released a report on “Rape and sexual violence – human rights law and standards in the international criminal court” which aims to identify “how the crimes of rape and sexual violence must, as a requirement of its own statute and a matter of international human rights law, be interpreted and applied with equality between men and women by the International Criminal Court.” As the report noted, the Court had yet to rule on this matter.
In March and April of this year, the Trial and Appeals Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda acquitted two accused charged with sexual violence.
On April 5, 2011, Magister JFT | Livius, Magister JFT | InterAct, INTERVICT, the Department of Criminal Law and the Center for Science and Values (CSV) will host a symposium on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
In 2009, Joseph Mpambara was convicted in the Netherlands of murder and torture during the 1994 genocide. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A Dutch court is now considering his appeal.
February saw the trial of 11 men before the Democratic Republic of Congo’s pioneering “mobile gender court”. The men were accused of raping more than 60 women in Fizi, South Kivu province. In February, the “City of Joy” also had its official opening. The compound will serve as a campus where Congolese women, most of them rape victims, will be groomed to become leaders in their communities in the hope that they will catalyze social change.
