Gacaca: restorative justice in action

KEY QUESTIONS
What is gacaca? What is restorative justice? How does is work compared to conventional justice processes?

Restorative justice is often seen as a fringe alternative to ‘conventional’ justice. Rwanda is the only country in the world which has chosen to deal with mass crimes against humanity through restorative justice processes.
The system of gacaca (pronounced ga-cha-cha) has played a huge role in post-genocide Rwanda. Its outcomes are complex and its successes are varied.
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal, set up to deal with the genocide, has completed 50 trials and convicted 29 people at a cost of over $1 billion, while the gacaca community courts have processed over 400,000 people at a cost of $55 million.

AIMS AND PURPOSE
To gain knowledge about Rwanda’s gacaca justice system.
To build an understanding of the complexities of gacaca.
To engage in broader concepts such as justice, compensation, punishment and reconciliation.

WHAT DO I GET?
There are four PDFs included with this lesson:-
A two-page lesson plan covering the key questions, aims, resources needed and a detailed outline of the suggested method and activities.
Two sets of handouts for printing.
A set of presentation slides for class discussion.