天天吃瓜 Department of Chair has returned from a March trip to Rwanda, where she joined 16 scholars from around the world in a study tour of the country鈥檚 1994 genocide that resulted in the deaths of 800,000 people in 100 days.
Toffolo, a participant in Northeastern鈥檚 Genocide in Africa Research Group, and her colleagues examined how the country has developed various strategies in the past 21 years to recover from the genocide.
鈥淩wanda is a very important case to understand for many reasons,鈥 Toffolo said. 鈥淚t is often seen as the worst genocide since the Holocaust and it raised the world鈥檚 consciousness about the need to be more proactive when warnings are raised. Along with the former Yugoslavia, it is responsible for the world finally creating the International Criminal Court, an institution which was envisioned after World War II but came into being only after it was necessary to set up special international tribunals for the atrocities that occurred in the early 1990s in these two countries.鈥
Organized by the new director of graduate research at the University of Rwanda, Dr. Alphonse Muleefu, the trip gave its participants unprecedented access not only to major sites that document and memorialize the genocide, but to those in leadership positions in the government, courts, police, military, prisons and work camps, as well as the church, arts and economic sectors.
Toffolo and the other researchers learned about the three levels of courts used to punish those who perpetrated the genocide, and about the various strategies the government is using to chart a new future for the country鈥攅conomically, educationally and politically.
鈥淩wanda is also unique in that it came up with Gracaca courts, a local way of dealing with the over one million people who were actively involved in the killing,鈥 Toffolo said. 鈥淚t is a new model of restorative justice which is now being carefully studied around the world.鈥
