The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 85 individuals at a cost of $1.3 billion.
Théoneste Bagosora was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89. According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings". On 25 September 2021, he died in a prison hospital in Mali, where he was being treated for heart issues.
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko is a Rwandan politician who was the Minister for Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women. She was convicted of having incited troops and militia to carry out rape during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. She was tried for genocide and incitement to rape as part of the "Butare Group" at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. In June 2011, she was convicted of seven charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nyiramasuhuko is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by the ICTR, and the first woman to be convicted of genocidal rape.
The Gacaca courts were a system of community justice claimed by the Rwandan state to be rooted in "tradition" despite being a fundamentally novelpunitive system based on incarceration and forced public labor. The term 'gacaca' can be translated as 'short grass' referring to the public space where neighborhood male elders (abagabo) used to meet to solve local problems. The name of this system was then adopted in 2001 as the title of the state's new criminal justice system "Gacaca Courts" to try those deemed responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide where over an estimated 1,000,000 people were killed, tortured and raped. After the genocide, the new Rwandan Patriotic Front's government incarcerated large swathes of the population and consequently struggled to pursue justice on such a massive scale. It then announced the introduction of Gacaca Courts as the only possible means to address the massive population of untried prisoners, 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. The state justified the use of these unconventional courts by claiming that using the justice system Rwanda had in place, the trial of such massive numbers of alleged perpetrators would take well over 200 years during which Rwanda's economy would crumble as a massive amount of their population awaited trial in prison. In 1994, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try high-ranking government and army officials accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. But by June 2006, the tribunal had come to only 22 judgments involving 28 people. At this rate, the Rwandan government claimed that it would take 200 years to prosecute the 130 000 people who were in prison awaiting trial. The Gacaca Courts were established in law in 2001, began to operate on a trial basis in 2002 and eventually came to operate as trials throughout the country by early 2007.
Jean Kambanda is a Rwandan former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Rwanda in the caretaker government from the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He is the only head of government to plead guilty to genocide, in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into effect in 1951.
Jean-Paul Akayesu is a former teacher, school inspector, and Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) politician from Rwanda, convicted of genocide for his role in inciting the Rwandan genocide. He was the mayor of Taba commune in Gitarama prefecture from April 1993 until June 1994.
Simon Bikindi was a Rwandan singer-songwriter who was formerly very popular in Rwanda. His patriotic songs were playlist staples on the national radio station Radio Rwanda during the war from October 1990 to July 1994 before the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power. For actions during the Rwandan genocide, he was tried and convicted for incitement to genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2008. He died of diabetes at a Beninese hospital in late 2018.
Félicien Kabuga is a Rwandan businessman and génocidaire who played a major role in the run-up to the Genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis. A multimillionaire, he was closely connected to dictator Juvénal Habyarimana's Hutu nationalist MRND party and the Akazu, an informal group of Hutu extremists who helped lead the Rwandan genocide.
Tharcisse Renzaho is a Rwandan soldier, former politician and war criminal. He is best known for his role in the Rwandan genocide.
Augustin Ngirabatware is a Rwandan politician who participated in the Rwandan genocide and has been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Ildéphonse Nizeyimana is a Rwandan soldier, who was convicted of having participated in the Rwandan genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Protais Mpiranya is a Rwandan soldier, who is alleged to have participated in the Rwandan genocide.
Casimir Bizimungu is a Rwandan politician.
Augustin Ndindiliyimana is a former Rwandan General and Chief of the Rwandan National Gendarmerie. He was convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda but he was acquitted by the tribunal upon appeal.
Juvénal Uwilingiyimana (1951–2005) was a Rwandan politician. He held office as Commerce Minister and as the head of national parks. He was an ethnic Hutu and originated in Gisenyi prefecture. In 1989, he was appointed the Minister for Trade in the MRND government of Juvénal Habyarimana. In 1994 he became the director of national tourism in the provisional government following Habyarimana's assassination. The former Rwandan minister was collaborating with the Rwanda International Criminal Court (ICTR), which judges those responsible for the 1994 genocide, and had expressed fear for his life for his collaboration with the ICTR.
Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was a convicted Rwandan War Criminal and politician associated with the Hutu Power movement. A high-ranking civil servant, Barayagwiza served as policy director within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time of the Rwandan genocide. He has been described as one of the "masterminds" of the genocide.
Major Bernard Ntuyahaga is a Rwandan army officer convicted by a Belgian court for the murders of ten United Nations peacekeepers at the start of the Rwandan genocide.
Grégoire Ndahimana is the former mayor of Kivumu, Rwanda. Indicted and arrested for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Ndahimana is thought to be one of the key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and is claimed to have had up to 6,000 Tutsi killed. He will stand trial in Arusha, Tanzania, where the ICTR currently holds its courts.
Charles Ayodeji Adeogun-Phillips is a former United Nations genocide and war crimes prosecutor, international lawyer and founder of Charles Anthony (Lawyers) LLP.
United Nations Security Council resolution 955, adopted on 8 November 1994, after recalling all resolutions on Rwanda, the Council noted that serious violations of international humanitarian law had taken place in the country and, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).