Rwanda
Informal courts law presented in Parliament against opposition protests

afrol.com, 6 October - The Rwandan Minister for Justice, Jean de Dieu Mucyo announced on Wednesday that his ministry is in the final stages of preparing the gacaca law. It will be tabled before the Transitional National Assembly for debate in two weeks time. Earlier this week, the exiled opposition protested sharply against the use of these courts.

Minister Mucyo announced this during a consultative meeting with Johns Hopkins University. The meeting was aimed at discussing measures for streamlining communication between the two. Johns Hopkins University will provide support for the gacaca process, including regular publications and public awareness campaigns. 

The gacaca system is an initiative of the Rwandan Government aimed at speeding up trials of genocide suspects by having the cases heard in community courts. The gacaca trials will also allow more participation of the population in the justice process, thus contributing towards reconciliation, according to a press release from the Kigali Government. 

The radical, exiled opposition party, Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR), based in Montreal, Canada, has strongly protested against the widespread use of gacaca courts put forward as a solution to the overcrowding of state prisons in Rwanda. The institution of special government-run gacaca courts violates the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, according to the RDR. 

Traditionally, the gacaca courts in Rwanda are voluntarily used by two parties who agree on the person who will hear their case and reconcile them by settling their civil disputes out of ordinary courts. However, according to the RDR, "the proposed government-run gacaca courts imposed on the parties, headed by non-democratically elected judges with no qualification in law, empowered to hear serious criminal matters as crimes against humanity and to impose jail terms, have nothing traditional at all and constitute a mockery of justice."

According to a government spokesman, however, the gacaca courts will only hear cases of suspects in categories 2-4 of genocide suspects. These categories are for suspects accused of theft, destruction of property and other related crimes during the genocide. 

Source: Based on Rwandan Government and RDR 

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