The Foundation of the Gacaca Jurisdiction as a Socio-Legal Judicial Mechanism within Transitional Justice

Year 2022, Volume: 26 Issue: 3, 619 - 674, 31.07.2022

Omca Özdemir

https://doi.org/10.34246/ahbvuhfd.1131799

Abstract

Rwandan genocide of 1994 appears in a distinctive position in the history of genocides with the extraordinary number of people that were victimized within one hundred days, the wide-spread participation of the Hutu population in the massacre, and the atrocities that were committed by perpetrators on victims with whom they had preexisting social relations. These contextual qualities of the genocide have influenced the Rwandan society’s preferences related to transitional justice in the aftermath of the genocide. The post-genocide setting which reflected these qualities has limited the number of feasible mechanisms through both the scarce economic resources it involved and the threat of a new wave of violence that was created by the broken social fabric. In this particular context, Rwanda has re-instrumentalized Gacaca, which had been the traditional resolution mechanism of Rwanda, as a transitional justice mechanism by reshaping it in line with present requirements and supplementing it with the power of the modern state. The Gacaca jurisdiction, with its feature of being based on the direct participation of the people rather than professionals, was built in a way that would enable it to situate its impact in the social or, to put it another way, to transform the social as opposed to mere punishment, while judging the perpetrators of the genocide via the social.

Keywords

Rwandan genocide, transitional justice, Gacaca, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

GEÇİŞ ADALETİNDE SOSYO-HUKUKSAL BİR YARGI MEKANİZMASI OLARAK GACACA YARGISININ KURULUŞU

Abstract

1994 yılında Ruanda’da gerçekleşen soykırım; yüz gün içerisinde mağdur edilenlerin muazzam sayısı, Hutu nüfusunun katliama geniş katılımı ve genel olarak öncesinde belirli sosyal ilişkileri bulunan failler ve mağdurlar arasında mesafe olmaksızın gerçekleşen zulmün vahşeti ile soykırımlar tarihinde kendine özgü bir şekilde yerini almıştır. Soykırımın bu belirleyici nitelikleri, Ruanda toplumunun soykırım sonrası geçiş adaletine ilişkin tercihlerinde etkili olmuştur. Bu niteliklerin yansıması olan soykırım sonrası toplumsal durum, hem içerdiği maddi imkânların kısıtlılığı hem de parçalanmış sosyal dokunun yarattığı yeni şiddet dalgası tehlikesi ile uygulanabilecek mekanizmaları sınırlandırmıştır. Bu belirli bağlam içerisinde Ruanda, geleneksel çözüm mekanizması olan Gacaca’yı mevcut gereksinimler doğrultusunda yeniden şekillendirerek ve modern devlet imkânları ile destekleyerek bir geçiş adaleti mekanizması olarak yeniden işlevselleştirmiştir. Uzmanların değil halkın doğrudan katılımına dayalı olan Gacaca yargısı, bu özelliğiyle sosyal olan aracılığıyla soykırım faillerini yargılarken, aynı zamanda da salt cezalandırmadan farklı olarak etkisini sosyal olan içine yerleştirecek veya başka bir deyişle sosyal olanı dönüştürecek biçimde inşa edilmişti.

Keywords

Ruanda soykırımı, geçiş adaleti, Gacaca, Ruanda için Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesi, alternatif uyuşmazlık çözüm yöntemleri

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