“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
- Desmond Tutu
This Sunday story is a bit heavier. I almost didn't publish it - I certainly don't want to give anyone the impression we are attempting to profit off of suffering and strife, because that is not at all the intent behind sharing this. But I also know that with everything that is currently going on in the world, it is easy to start losing hope in a better future for all of us. Hope is critical - it's one of the defining things of being human, and it's based on holding onto the idea that tomorrow will be a bit brighter than today. The conflicts around the world, in particular in the Ukraine and the Middle East, are complicated - no blog post is going to identify the way forward, especially not this one. My goal for this post isn't that; I just want you to see that forward is possible, even when humans are stuck in some really awful stuff. And maybe, by seeing that forward is possible, you can breath some air on to that ember of hope that each of us carry with us, and keep carrying it until that brighter tomorrow is created. This story touches on the power of Restorative Justice to facilitate healing after a terrible crime against humanity, exemplified by an interaction by a couple of celebrities on a bit of a wander through Africa via motorcycles.
Many folks will remember the horror that occurred in the early 90s in Rwanda where, over the course of 100 days, neighbour turned against neighbour, and approximately 800,000 people were brutally murdered while the rest of the world watched on CNN. The majority of those who died were Tutsis, who suffered horrible things at the hands of the predominantly Hutu perpetrators. This situation was complex and this brief paragraph doesn't begin to tell the full situation, but the purpose of this post isn't on what happened - it's on what happened after.
After the killing, Rwanda was faced with an insurmountable task: How to bring Justice to the communities that had been profoundly impacted by the events of 1994. There were models for accountability, and the United Nations set up one of those models in the form of an International Criminal Court, while the Rwandan state courts attempted to handle some cases. The sheer volume of perpetrators meant that they were quickly overwhelmed. Following the genocide, over 130,000 people were almost immediately arrested, even though Rwanda only had 18,000 prison spaces. 1/5th of the nation was considered to be responsible for crimes related to genocide - well over a million people - and all that remained were 50 lawyers in the whole country. One scholar noted that it would take 200 years to hear every case in the post-civil war court system, which further illustrates just how big this task was. In 2001, Rwanda passed a law that formalized the use of the Gacaca (Gah-Cha-Cha) court process for genocidal crimes. Unlike the traditional “Court” - where lawyers present evidence and argue with each other, trying to “prove” who did what to who beyond a reasonable doubt - the Gacaca model was very different.
Gacaca courts were based on some key principles that align with the Restorative model: the focus was on community, storytelling, and repairing harms. The people harmed by the genocide were directly involved in the process, telling their stories to the people who harmed them. The perpetrators of violence got the chance to tell their stories, too, and explain how they came to be caught up in such horribly violent acts. The objective was to provide a process where the responsible parties could make amends - apologies, returning property, and in some cases ongoing support for victims’ families, but beyond that the goal was reconciliation, and reintegrating offenders into the communities they were from, right alongside those they had harmed. This is no small task; the Gacaca courts were essentially trying to repair the fabric of a nation that had been torn apart. And, like all justice processes, accountability was critical - it wasn’t just about admitting and apologizing for what they did; the responsible parties had to earn their place back in the community by following through on their commitments to make things right.
They weren’t perfect. The Gacaca courts faced a lot of criticism - often by people who didn’t understand them or only knew of one "correct' way to engage in accountability - but some of those criticisms were absolutely legitimate. Folks were concerned about due process, which is a fundamental part of Natural Justice and absolutely must be part of accountability processes; in the case of Gacaca courts, the facilitators may have lacked the experience or knowledge to ensure these rights were respected in every case. There were also significant concerns about re-traumatizing folks who had lived through an incredibly horrific experience, as well as allegations of political bias. But, the Gacaca process meant that instead of a court process that would have taken decades to work through, with significant barriers based on who could afford the best lawyers, the bias or identity of judges, or the requirement to rely on judicial precedent during an experience that was unprecedented, the Rwandan people were able to sort through an absolutely massive number of cases rapidly, bringing healing to many. By the time they were disbanded in 2012, nearly 2 million Gacaca processes were undertaken in Rwanda, with over a million responsible parties answering directly for their crimes in this community-focused way.
So how do the actors on the motorcycles fit this story? Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor are famous for their movies and TV programs - this is Obi Wan Kenobi and his best friend that I'm talking about here - but in the motorcycle world, they are most famous for their "Long Way..." documentary series that focuses long-distance motorcycle travel. "The Long Way 'Round" took them around the world, from London to New York. "The Long Way Up" was from Argentina to California all through South and Central America. In "The Long Way Down", they went from the most northern tip of Scotland, and travelled all through Africa to Capetown.
Along the way, they stopped in Rwanda. Ewan and Charlie visited a museum designed to tell the story of the genocide, and saw up close the kind of horror that was wrought in those 100 days. They were shown around the museum by a local who worked there and lived through the genocide. At the end of their tour, they asked politely if she was Hutu or Tutsi.
With a big smile, she simply said "I'm Rwandan".
I'm not saying that Restorative Justice is a magic panacea, because it's not. I'm not saying the Gacaca courts were perfect because they certainly weren't. I'm not saying that because of those courts, Rwanda healed fully and now everything is perfect, because that's not the case either. And I'm not saying that restorative justice is the solution for the suffering we are seeing around the world today.
But it does seem clear to me that because Rwanda embraced the Gacaca process, more healing and more justice was brought to the people who call that beautiful country home than would have been achieved through the UN or state court process alone - indeed, if that was the only option, they'd likely still be working through cases. If we think a little bit differently about justice and accountability - and focus on the human side of it, seeking first to understand and committing to finding a path forward together as people, then I think the Gacaca courts show us that accountability processes can be a tool for more than fact finding to decide whose to blame, even in response to unspeakable suffering. Our accountability processes can be a tool for reconciliation, for healing, and for hope.
In times of great darkness, I hope this story is a reminder that light is possible, and it's worth hoping for. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next Sunday.
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