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Gacaca court
Gacaca courts are a new form of community justice that have been used in Rwanda in the wake of the Rwandan Genocide. More than a million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, were killed in the conflict in 1994. Since then, the new Rwandese Patriotic Front's government has struggled to come up with a solution for the humane detention and prosecution of the more than 100,000 accused war criminals. The Gacaca court system has evolved as a new solution, influenced by the traditional, communal law enforcement techniques. The system, put in place in March 2001, involves both victims and witnesses in an interactive court proceeding against alleged criminals. The judges are untrained citizens, elected by their peers. The procedure is expected to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster, as well as less expensive to the state.
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