Rwanda's Gacaca courts
Rwanda's post-genocide Gacaca courts converted neighbors' knowledge and mass participation into a national judicial system capable of hearing nearly two million cases that ordinary courts could not process. Locally elected lay judges, public testimony, confession incentives, community service, imprisonment, and property restitution produced facts and decisions at extraordinary scale. That capacity coexisted with weak defense rights, intimidation, false accusation, trauma, unpaid reparations, uneven judges, and a jurisdiction that excluded crimes committed by the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front.
How can a country adjudicate mass participation in genocide when the ordinary judiciary is devastated and survivors, accused people, witnesses, and judges must continue living together?