International Justice and the Genocide in Rwanda: Initial Assessment


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The non-governmental organization, Development and Peace, met with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity to hold a seminar  on the theme of “International Justice and the Genocide in Rwanda: Initial Assessment”. The objective of this initiative was to contribute to the initial assessment of the instruments available for international justice vis-à-vis the crime of genocide. The seminar embarked on the following themes:
  • the progress and limits of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda;
  • the challenges of the application of the Law of Universal Competence to national jurisdictions in the case of the Rwandan genocide; and
  • the effect of international mechanisms on the social pacification of Rwanda.
The panel of experts were:
  • Hilary Homes, from Amnesty International and the Canadian Center for International Justice;
  • Noël Twagiramungu, Secretary-General of the League for the Promotion of Human Rights in Rwanda (LIPRODHOR), visiting fellow at Harvard University- W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Research;
  • André Guichaoua, Professor of sociology at l’Université Paris-I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and specialist on the Great Lakes region in Africa, he was in Kigali in April 1994 and participates as a witness and expert in numerous judicial procedures; and
  • Zarir Merat, head of the Lawyers without Borders (LWB) mission in Rwanda since 2007, he coordinates the observation work of the gacaca jurisdiction. He has been active in human rights and justice for over 25 years.

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