The Challenge of Linking International Criminal Justice and National Reconciliation: the Case of the ICTR

Source: (2003) Leiden Journal of International Law. 16: 115-133.

The quest of extending the role of tribunals beyond its traditionalmission of justice to embrace
the diffcult need of reconciliation after mass atrocities has revealed itself to be challenging.
This diffculty is most clearly illustrated inthe case of the ICTR, whosemission is to bring about
Rwandan reconciliation through justice. The implementation of thismission that was doubted
by some members of the Security Council, including the Rwanda itself, at the time of setting up
the ICTR is becoming a diffcult experiment, with positive results but also with some negative
outcomes capable even of undermining the aimed objective of national reconciliation. The
problem of co-operation between the Tribunal and Rwanda, the diffculties of circumscribing
individual responsibilitywithout condemning thewhole community, the problem of singling
out and punishing some criminals and leaving the rest unpunished, the abuse of pardon and
clemency, and Finally the absence of the victim in a criminal process pretending to restore his
situation are some of the diffcult problems hampering the proclaimed mission of reconciliation
assigned to the ICTR. This article is an attempt to analyse these problems and their impact on
national reconciliation in Rwanda. (author’s abstract).