The Office of the Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is to host an international workshop on the prosecution of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence crimes.
The Prosecutor Mr. Hassan Bubacar Jallow announced today that the workshop will be held on 26 to 28 November 2012 at the Lemigo Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The workshop’s goal is to share the ICTR’s experiences in the prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence crimes so those experiences may benefit future prosecutions at both the international and national levels.
Over the past 16 years, more than half of the 93 accused indicted by the ICTR were charged with crimes of sexual violence. Prosecutor Jallow has produced two draft best practices manuals to document his office’s experience in prosecuting these cases. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate the recommendations contained in these draft manuals with over 90 representatives from other international tribunals and courts, national jurisdictions, and other experts in the field. Following this discussion and debate, Prosecutor Jallow will harmonize all of the lessons learned into a comprehensive manual that can be used to enhance the prosecution of these crimes in the future. The workshop comes at an historic moment in the ICTR’s legacy.
The ICTR is scheduled to complete its work and hand over all remaining functions to the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals by the end of 2014. This workshop, Prosecutor Jallow stated, will be an important contribution to the ICTR’s legacy and have particular resonance in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. To this end, the workshop’s participants include national judges and prosecutors from Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda. In announcing the workshop, Prosecutor Jallow expressed his sincere appreciation to UN Women, who has partnered with the ICTR in this important effort, and to the Open Society Justice Foundations, East African Community, and Republic of Rwanda, whose generous financial contributions have made the workshop possible. Additional information about the workshop can be obtained by contacting Mr. James J. Arguin, Chief of the Appeals and Legal Advisory Division, at arguing@un.org or +255 27 256 5720.