Between April and July 1994, Rwanda went through one of History‘s darkest periods; an estimated more than one million Rwandans were brutally killed by fellow Rwandans in a very systematic state planned genocide unheard of in recent history

Confronted with the prospect of sharing power with exiles fighting for the right of return, the regime in Kigali at the time marshaled all its resources, including masses in Rwanda ’s country side and mobilized them to kill in groups so that none would be individually held responsible for genocide at the end of the day.

Ten years after, the legacy of the genocide lays heavy on the Rwanda government.

Even after the recent presidential decree pardoning the sick, elderly and the young , there remain over 80,000 people sitting in Rwanda’ s prisons awaiting trial for genocide charges and other crimes against humanity .

The sheer number of cases would clog even the world’s most developed legal system .And, for Rwanda , whose legal system was devastated by the genocide; the caseload would take centuries to sort through.

In an attempt to quicken the trial process and dispense justice to a country that badly needs it, Rwanda has resurrected its age - old community based approach in resolving disputes and allowing reconciliatory justice .This path is what is called GACACA.

Originally, gacaca derives its name from a type of short and clean grass known in Kinyarwanda ( Rwanda ’s national language ) , as UMUCACA.

Long before the colonial period, Rwandans would elect well respected elders in their community known as Inyangamugayo in Kinyarwanda, who would sit on umucaca - covered ground to resolve disputes or among certain members of the community, thus the name GACACA.

Another symbol of this word also is that people used to gather in neutral place, like "no man's land".This facilitated really both sides and helped people feel in neutral environment, and lead to openness somehow.

Post -genocide gacaca however is different from its predecessor. Judges are elected from within the community to sit on 9- member Panels in gacaca sessions , with the mission not of settling petty disputes , but of hearing and recording testimonies from community members who saw and witnessed what happened during the genocide ; who killed who , who stole what , and so on .

The judges, known also as Inyangamugayo , will later on, after gathering enough data, sit in community gacaca courts in their respective villages and preside over trials of genocide suspects, depending on categories.

In 1996, the Rwanda parliament enacted and voted a genocide law dividing genocide suspects into 4 categories:

Category 1; this is comprised of suspects whose deeds during the genocide put them among the planners, organizers, instigators, leaders and supervisors of the genocide.

Category 2; is comprised of suspects who participated in physical attacks that resulted into the death of the victim

Category 3; suspects accused of terrible assaults that did not result into the death of some one.

Category 4; genocide suspects accused of looting, theft or other crimes related to property.

Gacaca courts have got only jurisdiction over genocide suspects that fall between categories 2 and 4 .Each gacaca jurisdiction is made up of a general assembly, a coordinating committee, a seat and a president.

A gacaca court general assembly is comprised of every adult (18 years and above) who must be residents within a cell in which that particular court sits.

Under the denomination of "Gacaca Courts", this system should be able to meet the following expectations :

- The reconstruction of what happened during the genocide

- The speeding up of the legal proceedings by using as many courts as possible