CBC and the Globe and Mail report on the conviction of Désiré Munyaneza, who was found guilty in a Quebec court of war crimes committed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the first conviction under a Canadian law that allows residents to be tried for crimes committed abroad.
Quebec Superior Court Justice André Denis held, “Désiré Munyaneza specifically intended to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group in Butare and in the surrounding communes. To that end, he intentionally killed Tutsi, seriously wounded others, caused them serious physical and mental harm, sexually assaulted many Tutsi women and generally treated Tutsi inhumanely and degradingly.”
With the landmark ruling, Canada joins a handful of countries, mainly in Europe, that have successfully prosecuted crimes against humanity.
Canada was among the nations that drafted a 1998 statute that established the International Criminal Court and spelled out the concept of “universal jurisdiction” – the legal principle that allows countries to prosecute crimes against humanity that take place outside their borders. Canada’s 2000 war crimes legislation followed suit.
To read the full CBC story, click here.
To read the full Globe and Mail story, click here.
