An Interview of Former Chief Justice Sam Rugege of The Supreme Court of Rwanda
Justice Sam Rugege served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rwanda for eight years and played an integral role in judicial reform in post-genocicide Rwanda. Throughout his venerated career he served as a consultant to the drafting of the 2003 Constitution; and he has been a long-standing champion of justice and the peaceful resolution of conflicts through mediation and other mechanisms.
In the spring and summer of 2021, I had the privilege to correspond with Former Chief Justice Sam Rugege of the Supreme Court of Rwanda. Beginning in 2004, Justice Rugege served on the Supreme Court, including an eight year term as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rwanda from December 2011 to December 2019. Justice Rugege also consulted in drafting Rwanda’s 2003 post-genocide Constitution, which references the importance of reconciliation and, as amended, mandates the resolution of disputes through dialogue. Today, Justice Rugege continues his commitment to justice and the peaceful resolution of conflicts as a member of the Board of Directors of The Weinstein International Foundation, a non-governmental organization which promotes increased accessibility to justice through mediation and dialogue-based dispute resolution throughout the world.
I was interested in speaking with Justice Rugege to learn more about the benefits that may stem from legal processes that encourage reconciliation or restorative justice, as Justice Rugege served as a consultant to the commission that drafted the Constitution in Rwanda after the Genocide Against the Tutsi. Some of the priorities of the post-genocide Constitition were reconciliation and peaceful conflict resolution. I also was interested in learning more about the benefits of the post-genocide use of Gacaca courts in Rwanda. In 2008, Justice Rugege was quoted in the book The Gacaca Courts: Post-Genocide Reconciiation and Justice in Rwanda as saying, “Out of destruction can come good things. Gacaca is our centerpiece for dealing with genocide crimes but it has been more than just punishment. It has brought about reconciliation among those who were directly involved in the genocide.” I was particularly intrigued as to the ways in which Rwanda serves as a model for how, as Justice Rugege said, “social development comes through laws'' and “law is a vehicle for change.”
I asked Justice Rugege if he would be willing to share his thoughts on the benefits of legal systems that are able to facilitate reconciliation, specifically how legal systems in post-genocide Rwanda were able to facilitate reconciliation. Justice Rugege graciously responded, expounded on how “[r]esolving disputes and conflicts through peaceful means and reconciliation is part of the Rwandan culture going back for centuries” (Rugege). He explained the role of the post-Genocide Gacaca court system, the Abuzi mediation mechanism, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, and the National Human Rights Commission. Most importantly, he shared that “[w]ithout all the above measures backed by the law, Rwanda would not have recovered from the social and economic devastation of 1994 and risen to where it is today, not a pariah among nations but a proud and respected member of the international community” (Rugege). Finally, Justice Rugege shared his profound advice to students learning about the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. He cautioned that the world today is “plagued by disinformation” and “[t]he Genocide aganist the Tutsi was popularized through disinformation by the mass media,” thus advising students to always be “weary of disinformation” ( Rugege).
The complete response and reflections of Justice Rugege to my interview questions are set forth below:
Resolving disputes and conflicts through peaceful means and reconciliation is part of the Rwandan culture going back for centuries. In pre-colonial society, there were various fora, from the family council at the bottom to the King’s court at the top. These fora were all premised on the principles of resolution of disputes or conflicts through dialogue, mediation or conciliation, reparation for wrongs, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration of good relations. These mechanisms and the principles were eroded by the colonial authorities. However, some of these traditional processes were revived after the Genocide against Tutsi, notably, the Gacaca courts which were set up to deal with genocide related cases and were phased out in 2012 after completing their task. The Abunzi Mediation mechanism still exist today. The resolution of disputes through dialogue is mandated by the Constitution of 2003 as amended by Article 10 and refers to the importance of reconciliation in its preamble.
The post-Genocide Gacaca court was a mechanism whose atmosphere and procedure facilitated getting to the truth of what happened, offered an opportunity for the accused person to ask for forgiveness from the victim, with a good chance that it would be given. This in turn could lead to healing on both sides and set the stage for reconciliation, mending of the social fabric that had been torn apart, and rebuilding of trust among communities, working towards unity and social harmony. Without closing this chapter of accountability coupled with reconciliation, unity would not have been possible and development would have been slow if not impossible.
The Abunzi mediation mechanism was formalized in the 2003 Constitution, which led to its country-wide adoption and it is now part of the Rwandan justice system. It is mandatory in most disputes to try resolving them through Abunzi and only if no solution is reached can a person file a claim in the courts. This has led to the majority of disputes being resolved by community members without having to go to court and has promoted reconciliation and good neighborliness hence contributing to social and economic development.
The law established the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in 1999 with a mandate to promote and facilitate reconciliation in the aftermath of the devastating 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The Commission has carried out activities to educate, sensitize and mobilize the population regarding national unity and reconciliation, has promoted reconciliation clubs in schools and prisons and cooperative activities among widows of Genocide and wives of perpetrators in the communities.
There is also the National Human Rights Commission also established by law in 1999, one of whose objectives is to prevent abuse of human rights given the history of violent abuse of rights that had characterized the state and society before the Genocide against the Tutsi. The law has criminalized discrimination and propagation of divisionism based on ethnicity, race, social origin or similar grounds.
Without all the above measures backed by the law, Rwanda would not have recovered from the social and economic devastation of 1994 and risen to where it is today, not a pariah among nations but a proud and respected member of the international community.
What I would like to say to American students is to be weary of disinformation. The world today, including the United States, is plagued by disinformation that is facilitated by the internet and especially through social media whereby lies are spread far and fast and repeated often enough to sound like facts, and thus misleading the general public. The Genocide against the Tutsi was popularized through disinformation by the mass media, especially RTLM (Radio Television Libre de Mille Collenes) which preached hate against the Tutsi minority, spread lies against them and called upon the Hutu peasants to exterminate them, leading a large part of the ordinary people to participate in the Genocide. Disinformation continues today on various internet sites propagated by Genocide fugitives and among their intellectual sympathizers, especially in Europe and North America, denying the Genocide against the Tutsi or seeking to distort the truth of what happened, despite internationally verified evidence and pronouncement by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that Genocide against the Tutsi did happen. People should not believe what they hear or see in print without sufficient scrutiny and double-checking of the information.
