Gacaca court

The Gacaca court (Kinyarwanda: [ɡɑtʃɑtʃɑ]) is a system of community justice inspired by Rwandan tradition where gacaca can be loosely translated to "justice amongst the grass". This traditional, communal justice was adapted in 2001 to fit the needs of Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide (also known as "Hutu vs Tutsi" ) where an estimated 800,000 people were killed, tortured and raped. After the genocide, the new Rwandan Patriotic Front's government struggled to pursue justice on such a massive scale, and therein to develop just means for the humane detention and prosecution of the more than 100,000 people accused of genocide, war crimes, and related crimes against humanity. By 2000, approximately 130,000 alleged genocide perpetrators populated Rwanda's prisons (Reyntjens & Vandeginste 2005, 110). Using the justice system Rwanda had in place, the trial of such massive numbers of alleged perpetrators would take well over 100 years during which Rwanda's economy would crumble as a massive amount of their population awaited trial in prison. For this reason they chose to adapt and create a large-scale justice system, which would work alongside the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in order to heal as a people and to thrive as a country.