>
The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society)

The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society)

  • £13.69
  • Save £75


Phil Clark
Cambridge University Press, 9/9/2010
EAN 9780521193481, ISBN10: 0521193486

Hardcover, 402 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English

Since 2001, the Gacaca community courts have been the centrepiece of Rwanda's justice 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 organisations and international scepticism regarding Gacaca's efficacy. Drawing on more than six years of fieldwork in Rwanda and nearly five hundred 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 the population's views on the future of Rwanda itself.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Map of Rwanda
Introduction
1. Framing Gacaca
transitional justice themes
2. Moulding tradition
the history, law and hybridity of Gacaca
3. Interpreting Gacaca
the rationale for analysing a dynamic socio-legal institution
4. The Gacaca journey
the rough road to justice and reconciliation
5. Gacaca's modus operandi
engagement through popular participation
6. Gacaca's pragmatic objectives
7. Accuser, liberator or reconciler? Truth through Gacaca
8. Law, order and restoration
peace and justice through Gacaca
9. Mending hearts and minds
healing and forgiveness through Gacaca
10. (Re)fusing social bonds
Gacaca and reconciliation
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.