Yesterday Rwanda’s Head of State officiated the swearing-in of four top judges and a Deputy Secretary General at Rwanda Investigation Bureau. In his remarks the President recalled that Rwanda remains committed to providing justice services and advised judges to be exemplary.

It is important to note that Rwanda’s judiciary and justice sector, for the past two decades, has evolved in the most unparalleled manner. From deployment of traditional courts in handling insurmountable workload of genocide cases, to justice reforms, the journey was worth the go!

Gacaca traditional courts ruled on millions of genocide cases when naysayers failed to provide alternative solutions. Against the huge backlog of trials, the grassroots courts for example decided on 1,9 million of genocide cases at a low budget, while the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ruled less than 200 cases with a humongous UN budget.

The primary goals of the modern Gacaca system included the acceleration of prosecutions, the punishment of the guilty, freedom for the victims, the establishment of the truth as well as reconciliation between victims and perpetrators. The latter is hailed internationally as exceptionally successful.

Presidential pardons and related clemency in Rwanda gave many criminals freedom when in other countries they would be sentenced to life or death. The case of thousands of genocide criminals who were pardoned by the President and or cases of convicts on genocide related charges including and not limited to Victoire Ingabire, Paul Rusesabagina are remarkable in the pursuit of fair justice, unity and reconciliation.

Clemency by the Head of State not only expressed maturity and confidence in dispensing justice and work for unified society, it remains an outstanding case study in pardoning convicts of high felony crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide crimes which in other states would subject perpetrators to death sentences or lifetime imprisonments.

Rwanda always insisted on countries which housed genocidaires to try them in their jurisdiction provided that they serve justice. This option which some of countries like France, Belgium, Netherlands applied positioned Rwanda as impartial when it comes to justice. This was against anti-Rwanda groups that claimed Rwanda wanted to hunt, repress and mistreat genocidaires who used the cover of critics when in actual sense they were suspected criminals.

Rwanda stood firm in the face of heinous crimes like Genocide, it would be pretentious and naivety of the highest caliber to deny, negate, distort and or minimize its outcomes. For naysayers who think that Rwanda’s dispense of justice is biased, politically motivated and repressive, the results on ground cannot be put to test.