Source: (2007) George Washington International Law Review. 39:765-837.
This article clarifies the genesis and operation of the Rwandan system of gacaca, which is also embedded within a hybrid structure or responding to mass crimes, situating it within the broader realm of transitional justice. Gacaca is comprised of approximately 9000 community-based courts, each overseen by locally-elected judges and designed to adjudicate the cases of suspected perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, during which approximately 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu and Twa, considered Tutsi sympathizers, were killed, many by their friends, neighbours and even family members. Gacaca operates alongside the UN International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Rwandan national courts. In this hybrid system, which Madeleine Morris terms one of “stratified-concurrent jurisdiction,” different judicial bodies have priority jurisdiction over any given case. (excerpt_
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