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

Yıl 2022, , 619 - 674, 31.07.2022

Omca Özdemir

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

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Kaynakça

• “Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda”, UN doc. A/52/486, <https://reliefweb.int/report/rwanda/report-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-human-rights-field-operation-rwanda>, Erişim Tarihi 9.5.2022.
• “Rwanda: International Tribunal Closing Its Doors”, 23.12.2015, <https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/23/rwanda-international-tribunal-closing-its-doors>, Erişim Tarihi 14.5.2022.
• 1 Ekim 1990 ve 31 Aralık 1994 Arasında İşlenen Soykırım ve İnsanlığa Karşı Suçların Faillerinin Kovuşturulması ve Yargılanması ile Yetkilendirilen Gacaca Mahkemelerinin Örgütlenmesi, Yetkisi ve İşleyişini Düzenleyen 16/2004 Sayılı Organik Yasa, https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=52f22c704, Erişim Tarihi 12.5.2022.
• 1 Ekim 1990 ve 31 Aralık 1994 Arasında İşlenen Soykırım veya İnsanlığa Karşı Suç Teşkil Eden Fiillerin Kovuşturulmalarını Düzenleyen ve Gacaca Yargısını Kuran 26.01.2001 Tarih ve 40/2000 Sayılı Organik Yasa, < https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/0bdf0f/pdf>, Erişim Tarihi 12.5.2022.
• 1 Ekim 1990’dan İtibaren İşlenen Soykırım veya İnsanlığa Karşı Suç Teşkil Eden Fiillerin Kovuşturulmalarının Düzenlenmesi Hakkında 1996 Yıl ve 08/1996 Sayılı Organik Yasa, <https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4f64.html>, Erişim Tarihi 12.5.2022.
• 13/2008 Sayılı 19/05/2008 Tarihli Organik Yasa, <https://gazettes.africa/gazettes/rw-government-gazette-dated-2008-06-01-no-11>, Erişim Tarihi 10.6.2022.
• African Union, Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, 2000, <https://www.refworld.org/docid/4d1da8752.html>, Erişim Tarihi 10.5.2022.
• BM Güvenlik Konseyi 955 Sayılı Kararı, 8.11.1994, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/198038>, Erişim Tarihi 14.3.2022.
• BM Güvenlik Konseyi 977 Sayılı Kararı, 22.2.1995, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/198201#:~:text=Details&text=TitleResolution%20977%20(1995)%20%2F,meeting%2C%20on%2022%20February%201995.&text=Decides%20that%2C%20subject%20to%20the,have%20its%20seat%20at%20Arusha>, Erişim Tarihi 14.3.2022.
• BM İnsan Hakları Komisyonu 1999/20 kararına istinaden Özel Temsilci Michel Moussalli tarafından sunulan Ruanda’da insan haklarının duruu hakkında Rapor, 25.2.2000, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/409754#record-files-collapse-header>, Erişim Tarihi 9.5.2022.
• Brehm H. N, Uggen C, Gasanabo J-D, “Genocide, Justice, and Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts”, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(3), 2014, s.333-352.
• Buckley-Zistel S, ”Remembering to Forget: Chosen Amnesia as a Strategy for Local Coexistence in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 76(2), 2006, s.131-150.
• Clark P, “The Gacaca Courts and Abbreviated Criminal Procedure for Genocide Crimes in Rwanda”, Morten Bergsmo (Ed.), Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2017, s.189-208.
• Clark P, The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda – Justice without Lawyers, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Cobban H, “The Legacies of Collective Violence”, 1.4.2002, https://bostonreview.net/articles/helena-cobban-legacies-collective-violence/, Erişim Tarihi 8.5.2022.
• Çoban Öztürk E, “Ruanda’da Trajedi, Adalet ve Uzlaşma”, 20. Yüzyılda Soykırım ve Etnik Temizlik, Cenap Çakmak, Fadime Gözde Çolak, Gökhan Güneysu (Ed.), İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2014, s.13-63.
• Daly E, “Between Punitive and Reconstructive Justice: The Gacaca Courts in Rwanda”, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 34(2), 2002, s.355-396.
• Dauge-Roth A, “Testimonial Encounter-Esther Mujawayo’s Dialogic Art of Witnessing”, French Cultural Studies, 20(2), 2009, s.165-180.
• Des Forges A, Longman T, “Legal Responses to Genocide in Rwanda”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.49-68.
• Doughty K, “Law and the Architecture of Social Repair: Gacaca Days in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 21(2), 2015, s.419-437.
• Drumbl M. A, "Law and Atrocity: Settling Accounts in Rwanda", Ohio Northern University Law Review, 31(1), 2005, s.41-74.
• Drumbl M. A, “Punishment, Postgenocide: From Guilt to Shame to Civis in Rwanda”, New York University Law Review, 75, 2000, s.1221-1326.
• Fierens J, ”Gacaca Courts: Between Fantasy and Reality”, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 3(4), 2005, s.896-919.
• Fletcher L. E, Weinstein H. M, “Violence and Social Repair: Rethinking the Contribution of Justice to Reconciliation”, Human Rights Quarterly, 24, 2002, s.573-639.
• Forges A. D, Leave None to Tell the Story-Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch, 1999.
• Gourevitch P, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families- Stories From Rwanda, Picador, 1998.
• Haberstock L, “An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Gacaca Court System in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, Global Tides, 8, 2014, s.1-16.
• Halpern J, Weinstein H. M, “Empathy and Rehumanization after Mass Violence”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.303-322.
• Ingelaere B, “Does the Truth Pass across the Fire without Burning?’ Locating the Short Circuit in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts”, The Journal of Modern African Studies”,47(4), 2009, s.507-528.
• Karekezi U, Nshimiyimana A, Mutamba B, “Localizing Justice: Gacaca Courts in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.69-84.
• Laub D, “An Event without a Witness: Truth, Testimony, and Survival”, Shoshana Felman, Dori Laub (Ed.), Testimony, Routledge, 1992, s.75-92.
• Lemarchand R, “Rwanda: The State of Research”, 25.6.2018, <https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/rwanda-state-research>, Erişim Tarihi 14.5.2022.
• Longman T, Pham P, Weinstein H. M, “Connecting Justice to Human Experience: Attitudes Toward Accountability and Reconciliation in Rwanda”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.206-225.
• Lundy P, McGovern M, “Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up”, Journal of Law and Society, 35(2), 2008, s.265-292.
• Mamdani M, When Victims Become Killers-Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton University Press, 2002.
• McVeigh K, “Spate of Killings Obstructs Rwanda's Quest for Justice, 3.12.2006, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/03/rwanda.karenmcveigh>, Erişim Tarihi 18.5.2022.
• Meyerstein A, “Between Law and Culture: Rwanda’s Gacaca and Postcolonial Legality”, Law & Social Inquiry, 32(2), s.467-508.
• Mobekk E, “Conference Report”, Anja H. Ebnöther, Philipp H. Fluri (Ed.), After Intervention: Public Security Management in Post-Conflict Societies - From Intervention to Sustainable Local Ownership, PfP Consortium Working Group “Security Sector Reform”, 2005, s.377-421.
• Molenaar A, Gacaca: Grassroots Justice after Genocide-The key to reconciliation in Rwanda?, African Studies Centre, 2005.
• Pocar F, “International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)”, Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law, Oxford University Press, 2022.
• Prunier G, The Rwanda Crisis- History of a Genocide, Columbia University Press, 1997.
• Raper J, “The Gacaca Experiment: Rwanda's Restorative Dispute Resolution Response to the 1994 Genocide”, Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Review, 5(1), 2004, s.1-56.
• Rettig M, “Gacaca: Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation in Postconflict Rwanda?”, African Studies Review, 51(3), 2008, s.25-50.
• Sarkin J, “The Tension between Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Politics, Human Rights, Due Process and the Role of the Gacaca Courts in Dealing with the Genocide”, Journal of African Law, 45(2), 2001, s.143-172.
• Schabas W. A, “Genocide Trials and Gacaca Courts”, Journal of International Criminal Justice”, 3, 2005, s.879-895.
• Sibomana A, Hope for Rwanda, Pluto Press, 1999.
• Sosnov M, “The Adjudication of Genocide: Gacaca and the Road to Reconciliation in Rwanda”, Denver Journal of International Law & Policy, 36(2), 2007, s.125-153.
• Stover E, Shigekane R, “Exhumation of Mass Graves: Balancing Legal and Humanitarian Needs”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.85-103.
• Stover E, Weinstein H. M, “Conclusion: A Common Objective, A Universe of Alternatives”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.323-342.
• Sullo P, Beyond Genocide: Transitional Justice and Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, Asser Press, 2018.
• The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Prosecuting Genocide in Rwanda: The Gacaca system and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Report II/2002. Tiemessen A. E, “After Arusha: Gacaca Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, African Studies Quarterly, 8(1), 2004, s.57-76.
• Uluslararası Af Örgütü Raporu, “Rwanda: The troubled Course of Justice”, 25.4.2000, Index Number: AFR 47/010/2000, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr47/010/2000/en/>, Erişim Tarihi 14.3.2022.
• Uluslararası Af Örgütü Raporu, “Rwanda Unfair Trials: Justice Denied”, Index Number: AFR 47/008/1997, 7.4.1997, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr47/008/1997/en/>, Erişim Tarihi 12.3.2022.
• Uluslararası Af Örgütü, “Gacaca: A Question of Justice”, 17.12.2002, Index Number: AFR 47/007/2002, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr47/007/2002/en/>, Erişim Tarihi 12.3.2022.
• Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesi Roma Statüsü, <https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf>, Erişim Tarihi 9.5.2022.
• Weine S, Testimony after Catastrophe-Narrating the Traumas of Political Violence, Northwestern University Press, 2006.
• Weinstein H. M, Stover E, “Introduction: Conflict, Justice and Reclamation”, Eric Stover, Harvey M. Weinstein (Ed.), My Neighbor, My Enemy – Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, Cambridge University Press, 2004, s.1-26.
• Werchick L, “Prospects for Justice in Rwanda’s Citizen Tribunals”, Human Rights Brief, 8(3), 2001, s.15-17, 28.
• Wierzynska A, “Consolidating Democracy through Transitional Justice: Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts”, New York University Law Review, 79, 2004, s.1934-1969. Yugoslavya için Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesi Statüsü, <https://www.icty.org/x/file/Legal%20Library/Statute/statute_sept09_en.pdf>, Erişim Tarihi 14.3.2022.
• Zorbas E, “Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, African Journal of Legal Studies, 1(1), 2004, s.29-52.