Gacaca Courts -Justice on the Grass |
The dynamics of contemporary conflicts reveal the
difficulties inherent in countries transitioning from conflict to peace and has
given birth to transitional justice. The latter is the field of study where
justice is not relegated to criminal or retributive justice only but to a holistic
range of processes, the ambit of which includes accountability, truth recovery
and reconciliatory processes. Kofi Anan
former UN Secretary General defines transitional justice as the “ full set of
processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s attempts to come to terms
with a legacy of large-scale past abuse, in order to secure accountability,
serve justice and achieve reconciliation.” In keeping within these processes and within
this framework, particularly with
regard to Africa, there has been resurgence in the use of traditional or local
justice mechanisms.
In this blog I will
thus briefly attempt to highlight the political contingencies that certain states
face, which catalyze the use of traditional justice mechanisms and make it so
popular within the African transitional justice landscape. I will contend that
in some instances traditional mechanisms can
adequately address massive human rights violations and establish peace and
reconciliation in post-conflict settings. I suggest that the value of traditional justice within
politically laden contexts is that they act as catalysts for the promotion of
unity. They draw on cultural and religious linkages of interconnectedness that
are of value to many African societies, such as the way in which ubuntu was ingrained in the TRC process
and the traditional strands of Gacaca conformed into a modern version of
Gacaca. This therefore, arguably creates a more “culturally familiar and
socially secure” space for people to participate in.
Drawing on the
practices of many African states, since the 1990’s a plethora of judicial and
non-judicial justice mechanisms have been used which has served as a testing
ground for the development of transitional justice. In terms of non-judicial justice mechanisms,
there have been a variety of truth commissions used, as well as a number of
traditional and community based approaches employed. The use of truth
commissions was used in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa over
the years, going as far back to the 1970’s. Some other mechanisms include, the
Gacaca courts in Rwanda, the role of the Magamba spirits in central Mozambique,
the use of Mato Oput in Northern Uganda, the tradition based practices of the
Kpaa in Sierra Leone and the institution of Bashingantahe in Burundi. Ideally
the ultimate goal of most of these mechanisms has been to attain some sort of
political reconciliation and thus ultimately peace.