You are here:
WorldLII >>
Databases >>
Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT) Resources >>
2004 >>
[2004] PICTRes 18
[Database Search]
[Name Search]
[Recent Documents]
[Noteup]
[Help]
International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda (ICTR) - Description [2004] PICTRes 18 (6 June 2004)
International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda (ICTR)
Within
a year of the creation of the ICTY, in April 1994, another massive ethnic
conflict broke out in central
Africa resulting first in the genocidal
murder of about half a million members of the Tutsi tribe by members of
the Hutu tribe in Rwanda, and then the displacement of hundreds of thousands
of Hutus into the territory of neighboring
countries. After much indecision,
on November 8, 1994, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 955 providing
for the establishment of the ICTR,
an international criminal tribunal for the prosecution of persons responsible
for genocide and other serious
violations of international humanitarian
law committed on the territory of Rwanda, and the prosecution of Rwandan
citizens responsible for the genocide and other such violations of international
law committed on the territory of
neighboring States, between 1 January
1994 and 31 December 1994.
Although the ICTY and the ICTR have many commonalties (described in the
ICTY) that differentiate them from all
other international judicial fora,
because of different factual circumstances surrounding the establishment
of
the two tribunals, the ICTR raises several issues that were not encountered
by the Yugoslav Tribunal. For instance, both
the ICTY and the ICTR were
established by a resolution of the Security Council, acting under Chapter
VII of the
UN Charter. Both are subsidiary organs of the Security Council
under article 29 of the UN Charter. However, unlike the
ICTY, the ICTR
was created at the request of the government on the territory of which
crimes were taking place
(although the Rwandan government eventually voted
against it). Moreover, unlike the case of former Yugoslavia, the Rwandan
situation involved an internal armed conflict, which raises important
questions relating to applicable law.
The Statute of the Rwanda Tribunal differs from that of the Yugoslav Tribunal
not only in terms of applicable
law, subject-matter and temporal, personal,
and territorial jurisdictions, but also in terms of organizational structure.
The ICTR is located in Arusha, Tanzania, while the ICTY is in The Hague,
The Netherlands. Although the two tribunals
share the same Appeals Chamber
and are guided by the same chief Prosecutor, these shared organs are based
at
The Hague (12 hours by plane from Arusha). The Deputy Prosecutor is
based in Kigali, Rwanda (17 hours by car from the seat
of the Tribunal).
This situation, combined with recurrent criticism of the administration
of the ICTR, creates
a challenge to the effective functioning of the Rwanda
Tribunal, which is not experienced by any other international judicial
forum.
Yet, at the same time, unlike in the case of the Yugoslav Tribunal, the
main difficulty of which has been obtaining
custody of the alleged offenders,
some 90,000 persons implicated in the Rwandan genocide have been incarcerated
in Rwanda and other States. Moreover, the ICTR has obtained custody of
several high-level government and military officials
suspected of planning
and inciting the Rwandan genocide. Thus, oddly enough, while the ICTY
has overcome its
administrative and managerial difficulties but has not
been able to try those ultimately responsible for the havoc caused
in
Yugoslavia, the Rwanda Tribunal, which has gone trough all sorts of administrative
and managerial challenges
and mishaps, is in position to make a greater
contribution to international justice and to an international criminal
system than its Yugoslav counterpart.
Data obtained from the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT)
WorldLII:
Copyright Policy
|
Disclaimers
|
Privacy Policy
|
Feedback
URL: http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/PICTRes/2004/18.html
