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UN-ICTR Ends Conferences and Exhibition in Banjul
Friday, 19 November 2010 16:46
By JollofNews CorrespondentThe United Nations-International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UN-ICTR) ended on Monday 15th November, 2010 a series of Conferences and Exhibition organized in collaboration with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), which is holding its 48th Ordinary Session held from 10 to 24 November, 2010 at the Sheraton Hotel International Conference Centre, Brusubi.
The 3-day conference (13-15 November, 2010) attracted hundreds of participants and visitors while a mammoth crowd visited the exhibition, at Sheraton Hotel & Resorts, Brusubi. The event involved series of conferences that were centered on the theme “Challenging Impunity: the Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the African Continent.”
Justice Hassan Bubacarr Jallow, Chief Prosecutor, UN-ICTR indicated that the initiative is part of series of events being co-organized by the Tribunal in a number of African countries. He then recalled that some sixteen years agul co in 1994 what may perhaps rank as the world’s worst humanitarian tragedy unfolded in that small but beautiful country in the Great Lakes Region of Africa . “Over a period of a hundred days close to a million people were killed –men, women, and children- for no reason other than their minority Tutsi ethnicity. With them too perished non-Tutsis, people of courage who stood up to the murderous genocidaires and protected the victims.”
He stated that for the past decade and a half the UN-ICTR, created and mandated by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter has been actively engaged in prosecuting those who played a leading role in the tragedy of 1994 and in so doing on our part to contribute to healing, reconciliation, justice and the restoration of the rule of law in Rwanda. And in this way, he went on, the UN-ICTR contributed to strengthening the worldwide struggle against impunity and the global quest for justice…
According to Justice Jallow, who is among the people that contributed his quota in setting up the foundations of the international justice system, the ICTR has indicted some 93 persons who played a leading role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. “With the cooperation of states and with the effective tracking activities by my office we have been able to arrest 83 of these indictees in operations covering some 50 countries; 10 of the indictees however continue to be fugitives from justice. We shall however continue the relentless search for them to bring them to justice. They should be aware of the fact that there is no limitations period for the prosecution of the crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity with which they stand indicted. ”
He also seized the opportunity to inform participants that the ICTR has already concluded the trial of 53 of the accused with 47 convictions and 8 acquittals. “Judgments are expected in respect of some other 16 accused persons and the trial of 5 other accused persons is in progress. We expect to conclude the trials of the last detainees shortly and conclude the trial phase of the current detainees by mid 2011. The appellate workload would continue into late 2012 or early 2013 when, with its conclusion we anticipate the closure of the Tribunal.”
In line with its conviction of promoting and implementing international criminal justice, the ICTR has not been alone in inviting our own modernity. “The International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia, the Sierra Leone Special Court and the Extraordinary Chamber of the Cambodian Court and indeed several other national jurisdictions have been partners of an international criminal justice process which has within a decade and half succeeded in bringing to account over 300 leading personalities who might have otherwise escaped justice; in expanding the frontiers of international law through a rapid and extensive development of the jurisprudence in the substantive law as well as on practice and procedure; and in developing best practices and techniques in all aspects of the investigation and prosecution of international crimes as well as in its judicial administration.”Adama Dieng, Registrar of the ICTR, said that they deliberately chosen to hold this event on the sides of the 48th Ordinary Session of the ACHPR. “The ACHPR has been one of the oldest and most credible institution in Africa post-independence, spearheading the culture of human rights in Africa. It is quite normal that an institution like ICTR seizes the opportunity of the forum availed by the Commission to showcase its achievements.”
He stated that unfortunately despite their enthusiasm and resolve, they do not have the means of their ambition. “Getting our message across Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region has been a great challenge. Going beyond to cover other regions, including West Africa region has been an even greater challenge.”
In spite of these challenges, the ICTR was able to embark on campaign especially designed to earmark specific activities geared towards fighting impunity on the continent. “We held an exhibition in Accra, in partnership with NGO AFLA, three years ago. We reiterated this partnership with a conference held in March 2009 in Dakar on gender crimes. And today we are in the Gambia to share the legal community, the human rights activists and persons from other sectors, the very important lessons learned in Arusha, in the process of the trials for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
Challenges in International Cooperation
During the conferences a wide range of topics along the ICTR legacy were covered about 20 individual plenary, oral and visual presentations. The primary concern during the discussions was related to the process whereby the continent, so characterized by inherent conflicts and contradictions, will find peace and security if the fight against impunity triumphs. There is good reason to celebrate such a perspective on the part of a justice without borders in Africa and all progressive humankind in general.
For Murtaza Jaffer, Senior Legal Officer and Special Assistant to the Prosecutor, the prosecution of international crimes in national or international courts is a task fraught with varied challenges. “In the case of the ICTR it was even more complex given the nature that the crime scene was the entire territory of Rwanda, with the victims numbering about ten percent of the pre-genocide population and potential perpetrators numbering in their thousands,” he said.
Far more disturbing, were the difficulties related to the location of the Tribunal outside Rwanda, posing logistical difficulties in tracking and arresting fugitives who were scattered across the globe; the cultural and language barrier. “Finally, the Tribunal brought together staff from diverse cultural and legal traditions or systems of law, each potentially with a different way of administering justice, operating in a new regime that had no guiding precedent to follow. Additionally, French and English are working languages of the Tribunal, which had the potential of causing delays in the pre-trial and trial process if pleadings or exhibits were filed in one language, requiring translation into the other.”
No doubt, the future of international justice system still hinges heavily on what has happened over these past years with States party cooperating. “In the absence of any enforcement or coercive machinery of its own the Tribunal must rely on State cooperation in the execution of its mandate. Indeed, without such cooperation for the arrest and transfer of fugitives, the transfer and protection of witnesses and obtaining evidence abroad the Tribunal would not be able to function.”
Viewed in this context, he added that in relying on state cooperation, the Tribunal has over the last fourteen years been able to secure the arrest and transfer of 83 fugitives from 25 countries. But he was quick to indicate that there do however remain deficiencies in state cooperation as a result of which 10 indicted fugitives remain at large. “The Office of the Prosecutor has been continuously engaged in efforts to secure the apprehension and transfer of these fugitives and has expanded great resources on tracking and locating them and on diplomatic missions to several States with the objectives of securing cooperation in their arrest.”
As the ICTR is moving towards its closure, Murtaza Jaffer emphasized that the success of international criminal system has been based on and will have to rely upon an effective cooperation regime. “While the ad hoc Tribunals have relied in large measure on their status and organs of the Security Council to secure cooperation, the ICC will have to rely on on forging effective partnership with national jurisdictions to give effect to the complimentary principle.”
“It should not be forgotten that the crimes in question are, first and foremost, national crimes, committed on national territory against local communities. They only acquire an international character because of their gravity and scale, giving the international community a vested right in having the perpetrators brought to justice as the crimes offend humanity.”
Participants from human rights organizations, the University of The Gambia and government’s institutions, the Gambia Bar Association used the Conferences and Exhibition to get information on the ICTR and its unfolding legacy. Calls were made by participants for States party to initiate law reform susceptible of domesticating some of the provisions of the international justice system. If they dodge their responsibility, it will mean that the closure of the ICTR will open pessimistic perspectives for those who believe in justice without borders…
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