The
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (
ICTR), or the
Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (
TPIR), is an
international courtInternational courts are formed by treaties between nations, or under the authority of an international organization such as the United Nations — this includes ad hoc tribunals and permanent institutions, but excludes any courts arising purely under national authority.Early examples of...
established in November 1994 by the
United Nations Security CouncilThe United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
in order to judge people responsible for the
Rwandan genocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by Hutus under the Hutu Power ideology. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April through mid-July, at least 500,000...
and other serious violations of the
international lawPublic international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states, analogous entities, such as the Holy See, and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
in
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994.
In 1995 it became located in
ArushaArusha is a city of northern Tanzania surrounded by some of Africa's most famous landscapes and national parks. Beautifully situated below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, it has a pleasant climate and is close to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake...
,
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
. (From 2006, Arusha also became the location of the
African Court on Human and Peoples' RightsThe African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights is a regional court that rules on African Union states' compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights....
). In 1998 the operation of the Tribunal was expanded. Through several resolutions, the Security Council called on the Tribunal to complete its investigations by end of 2004, complete all trial activities by end of 2008, and complete all work in 2010.
The tribunal has jurisdiction over
genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which are defined as violations of Common Article Three and Additional Protocol II of the
Geneva ConventionsThe Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that set the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. The singular term Geneva Convention refers to the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, updating...
(dealing with war crimes committed during internal conflicts).
So far, the Tribunal has finished 21 trials and convicted 29 accused persons. Another 11 trials are in progress. 14 individuals are awaiting trial in detention; but the prosecutor intends to transfer 5 to national jurisdiction for trial. 13 others are still at large, some suspected to be dead.The first trial, of
Jean-Paul AkayesuJean-Paul Akayesu is a former teacher, school inspector, and Mouvement Démocratique Républicain politician from Rwanda. He served as mayor of Taba commune from April 1993 until June 1994....
, began in 1997.
Jean KambandaJean Kambanda was the Prime Minister in the caretaker government of Rwanda from the start of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He is the only head of government to plead guilty to genocide, in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
, interim Prime Minister, pleaded guilty. According to the ICTR's Completion Strategy, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1503, all first-instance cases were to have completed trial by the end of 2008 (this date was later extended to the end of 2009) and all work is to be completed by 2010. It has recently been discussed that these goals may not be realistic and are likely to change.
Rape
The trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu established precedents that
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
is a crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "
sexual assaultSexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may be by a man on a man, woman on a man or woman on a woman. Approximately one in six American women will be a victim of a sexual assault in her lifetime...
formed an integral part of the process of destroying the
TutsiTutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu.-Origins:...
ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide." Presiding judge Navanethem Pillay said in a statement after the verdict: "From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war."
Trial against "hate media"
The trial against "hate media" began on 23 October 2000. It is charged with the prosecution of the media which encouraged the genocide of 1994.
On 19 August 2003, at the tribunal in Arusha, life sentences were requested for
Ferdinand NahimanaFerdinand Nahimana is a Rwandan former historian who was convicted of participating in the Rwandan Genocide.Nahimana was co-founder of the radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines but not the director, which during the genocide broadcast information and propaganda that helped...
, and
Jean Bosco BarayagwizaJean Bosco Barayagwiza was a leader of the Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.He was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on October 23, 2000 along with co-leader Ferdinand Nahimana and Hassan Ngeze, director and...
, persons in charge for the
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille CollinesRadio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994. It played a significant role during the April-July 1994 Rwandan Genocide....
, as well as
Hassan NgezeHassan Ngeze is a Rwandan journalist, best known for publishing the "Hutu Ten Commandments", which fomented anti-Tutsi feeling among Rwandan Hutus prior to the Rwandan Genocide....
, director and editor of the Kangur newspaper. They were charged with genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity, before and during the period of the genocides of 1994. On 3 December 2003, the court found all three defendants guilty and sentenced Nahimana and Ngeze to life imprisonment and Barayagwiza to imprisonment for 35 years. on 28 November 2007, the Appeals Chamber partially allowed appeals against conviction from all three men, reducing their sentences to 30 years' imprisonment for Nahimana, 32 years' imprisonment for Barayagwiza and 35 years' imprisonment for Ngeze.
No prosecutions have been brought against the founders, sponsors or anyone related to Radio Muhabura, a media whose pro-
RPFRPF is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:*Railway Protection Forces, India*Rassemblement du Peuple Français, a former French political party*Rassemblement pour la France, a French political party...
messages were broadcast throughout the country during the 1990-1994 war.
Composition
The Tribunal consists of 16 Judges in four "chambers" - three to hear trials, and one to hear appeals. In addition, there are 9
ad litemAd litem is a term used in law to refer to a party appointed by a court to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party—for instance, a child or an incapacitated adult—who is deemed incapable of representing him or herself. An individual who acts in this capacity is generally called a guardian ad...
judges, making 25 in all. At present, all 9
ad litem judges are assigned to Chambers II and III. There is an additional pool of 9 further ad litem judges who may be called on in the case of a judge being absent.
The column denoted by
# indicates the
order of precedenceAn order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance of items. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments...
.
Trial Chamber I
| # |
Judge |
Country of Origin |
Status |
| 5. |
Erik Møse Judge Erik Møse of Norway was the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2003 to 2007.Judge Møse was born in 1950. He graduated from the University of Oslo and had post-graduate studies in Geneva. He then taught at Oslo University. He then became a Fellow at the...
|
Norway |
Presiding Judge |
| 13. |
Sergei Alekseevich Egorov |
Russia |
Member |
| 23. |
Joseph Masanche |
Tanzania |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 24. |
Mparany Rajohnson |
Madagascar |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
Trial Chamber II
| # |
Judge |
Country of Origin |
Status |
| 4. |
William Sekule |
Tanzania |
Presiding Judge |
| 12. |
Arlette Ramaroson |
Madagascar |
Member |
| 14. |
Joseph Asoka Nihal De Silva |
Sri Lanka |
Member |
| 15. |
Solomy Balungi Bossa |
Uganda |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 16. |
Lee Gacugia Muthoga |
Kenya |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 18. |
Emile Francis Short |
Ghana |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 19. |
Taghrid Hikmet |
Jordan |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 20. |
Seon Ki Park |
South Korea |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
Trial Chamber III
| # |
Judge |
Country of Origin |
Status |
| 2. |
Khalida Rachid Khan Khalida Rashid Khan was born on 25 september 1949 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Inducted in provincial Judiciary in 1974 of North West Frontier Province as a first lady Civil Judge. She stepped up the ladder very fast by becoming a Senior Civil Judge, District & Sessions Judge and elevated as a judge of...
|
Pakistan |
Presiding Judge (Vice-President ICTR) |
| 1. |
Dennis Byron Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron was born in 1943 in Basseterre, Saint Kitts, the first of four children to Vincent and Pearl Byron.Having won the Leeward Islands Scholarship, Dennis, as he is usually called, went on to read law at Cambridge University, U.K., in 1962, where he graduated with an M.A...
|
Saint Kitts and Nevis |
|Member (President ICTR) |
| 17. |
Florence Rita Arrey |
Cameroon |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 21. |
Gberdao Gustave Kam |
Burkina Faso |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 22. |
Vagn Joensen |
Denmark |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
| 22. |
Aydin Akay |
Turkey |
Member (Ad litem judge) |
Appeals Chamber
| # |
Judge |
Country of Origin |
Status |
| 3. |
Patrick Robinson Patrick Lipton Robinson is the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was first elected to the Tribunal in 1998 and has been re-elected twice since. In 2004, he presided over the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević the first former head of...
|
Jamaica |
Presiding Judge |
| 10. |
Theodor Meron Theodor Meron was the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia until 2005, and now serves as a judge on the Appeals Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICTY....
|
United States |
member |
| 7. |
Fausto Pocar Judge Fausto Pocar is an Italian jurist. He is professor of International Law at the University of Milan. From 1984 to 2000, he was elected member of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, serving as the committee's chairman from 1991 to 1992...
|
Italy |
member |
| 8. |
Liu Daqun |
China |
member |
| 7. |
Mehmet Güney Mehmet Güney ís an international judge and Turkish diplomat who was born in Siirt, Turkey, in 1936. Mr. Güney began his career in 1959 as an administrative assistant in the office of the governor of Ankara before becoming a member of the Ankara Bar Association in 1964...
|
Turkey |
member |
| 11. |
Carmel Agius |
Malta |
member |
| 9. |
Andrésia Vaz |
Senegal |
member |
Office of the Prosecutor
The Office of the Prosecutor is divided into two Sections:
- The Investigation Section is responsible for collecting evidence implicating individuals in crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994.
- The Prosecution Section is responsible for prosecuting all cases before the Tribunal.
Hassan Bubacar JallowHassan Bubacar Jallow is a Gambian lawyer, politician, and jurist and has been the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003....
of
The GambiaThe Gambia , commonly known as Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west.Its borders roughly correspond to the path of the Gambia River,...
is the current Prosecutor of the ICTR. He has previously served as The Gambia's Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from 1984 to 1994, and subsequently as a Judge of Supreme Court of The Gambia from 1998 to 2002. He was appointed by the Security Council on September 15, 2003 to replace
Carla Del PonteCarla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals...
.
The Registry
The Registry is responsible for the overall administration and management of the ICTR. It also performs other legal functions assigned to it by the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and is the Tribunal’s channel of communication.
The Registry is headed by the Registrar, who is the Representative of the
UN Secretary-GeneralThe Secretary-General of the United Nations, acronym UNSYG, is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
.
Adama DiengAdama Dieng is a former board member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda....
of
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
is the present Registrar. He took office in March, 2001.
Related legal activities
French investigating magistrate
Jean-Louis BruguièreJean-Louis Bruguière was the leading French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs. He was appointed in 2004 vice-president of the Paris Court of Serious Claims . He has garnered controversy for various acts, including the indictment of Rwandan president Paul Kagame for the...
is also pursuing a case against the current President,
Paul KagamePaul Kagame is the current President of the Republic of Rwanda. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , whose victory over the incumbent government in July 1994 effectively ended the Rwandan genocide...
, and other members of his administration, for the assassination of his predecessor. This case is under the regular jurisdiction of the French courts because French citizens were also killed in the plane crash.
See also
- Command responsibility
Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....
- International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .The court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the...
- Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project (RULAC)
The or is an initiative of the to support the application and implementation of international law in armed conflict...
- Gacaca court
The Gacaca court is part of a system of community justice inspired by tradition and established in 2001 in Rwanda, in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, when between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered...
- The Church and the Rwandan Genocide
- Global Justice or Global Revenge
Global Justice or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice at the Crossroads is a book by Austrian philosopher Hans Köchler, who was appointed by the United Nations as observer of the Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands...
? by Hans KöchlerHans Köchler is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and president of the International Progress Organization, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations...
External links