Source: (2010) Cambridge University Press, New York.
Since 2001, the gacaca community courts have been the centrepiece of Rwanda’s jsutice and reconciliation programme. Nearly every adult Rwandan has participated in the trials, principally by providing eyewitness testimony concerning genocide crimes. Lawyers are banned from any official involvement, an issue that has generated sustained criticism from human-rights organizations and international scepticism regarding gacaca’s efficacy.
Drawing on more than seven years of fieldwork in Rwanda and nearly 500 interviews with participants in trials, this in-depth ethnographic investigation of a complex transitional justice institution explores the ways in which Rwandans interpret gacaca. Its conclusions provide indispensable insight into post-genocide justice and reconciliation, as well as population’s views on the future of Rwanda itself. (Excerpt from text).
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