Just as another trial of a Rwandan suspected of genocide has opened in the Netherlands on June 16, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts look into the impressive use of universal jurisdiction in cases dealing with the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. John Bosco Siboyintore, a national prosecutor and head of Rwanda’s Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit, states that since 2007, 1,120 indictments against genocide suspects have been submitted to third countries. According to him, a bit more than 1,000 suspects are still at large. “We know we are running out of time but our constant request [to foreign countries] is that: can you use universal jurisdiction and handle those cases, or extradite them to Rwanda?”
Nicola Palmer of University of Cape Town has studied all the Rwandan cases tried under universal jurisdiction across the world. It has involved 33 countries, with actual cases being litigated in 21 jurisdictions. She describes a complex and diverse legal landscape, involving not only criminal law but also refugee status, immigration, and extradition law. “The pursuit of genocide suspects also intersects with what we’re seeing as an increasingly exclusionary practice of the use of international law to exclude a large number of individuals, at least in part, legitimated by the exclusion of individuals who are suspected of involvement in the worst possible crimes,” she also warns.
ASYMMETRICAL HAIRCUTS
This podcast has been published as part of a partnership between Justice Info and Asymmetrical Haircuts, a podcast on international justice produced from The Hague by journalists Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg, who retain full control and independence over the contents of the podcast.
