Sweet Dreams Gacaca Living Together Again in Rwanda

November 30, 1999

Gacaca (Living Together Once again in Rwanda?) is a traditional form of justice that has been adapted to try the people imprisoned since the genocide, and to bring healing to the nation. To inform people about Gacaca Constabulary and Jurisdictions, and to encourage them to participate in the process, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Heart for Communication Programs undertook a multi-media campaign from 2000-2001. The objectives of the campaign were to: increment sensation and cognition about Gacaca; encourage perpetuators of the genocide to confess to their crimes; motivate those eligible to elect Gacaca judges; and motivate witnesses to requite testimony to what they saw, heard, and experienced during the genocide. Its 5 key components included community mobilisation, amusement-instruction, mass media, advocacy, and capacity edifice. This programme is an effort to lead the Rwandan people to justice, reconciliation, and healing.

Communication Strategies:

The Gacaca strategy was carried out in 4 phases:

• Stage I focused on raising awareness most Gacaca and increasing knowledge about the police..
• Phase II was concerned with the election of Gacaca judges.
• Phase III dealt with confession, testimony, and reconciliation.
• Phase IV focused on re-integration of prisoners into lodge through a work program.

Projection activities included:

• Training of community opinion leaders (COLs). The project trained more than 600 COLs to serve equally "emissaries" of the Gacaca behaviour change communication (BCC) project. COLs were trained in the content of the law and effective communication techniques. They were drawn from the Ministry of Justice, Civil Society, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and religious organisations.
• Emissary BCC sessions. COLs conducted interactive BCC sessions at the customs level. They explained the law, described why information technology is important to participate in the procedure, and distributed Gacaca impress materials to encourage participation. In their presentations, the COLs used the "Gacaca kit," which contains enquiry briefs, flipcharts, handouts, badges, and an "aide memoire". Each COL conducted, on average, 8 to 12 BCC sessions per calendar month.
• Gacaca play. A play near Gacaca was produced by 1 of Rwanda'southward top theatre troupes and toured throughout the country.
• Weekly radio spots were circulate on Office Rwandais d'Information (Rwandan National Information Part) (ORINFOR ) about various Gacaca bug to increment agreement of the election process and encourage participation.
• A bi-monthly newspaper, Inkiko Gacaca, published by the Ministry of Justice with technical assistance from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Schoolhouse of Public Health Eye for Communication Programs, reaches the full general public and discusses the Gacaca procedure and trials in detail.
• A bi-weekly radio talk show was produced and aired on Rwanda Radio to complement the spots, and each month call-in programmes were broadcast to cover aspects of the Gacaca law.
• Gacaca soccer matches. Educational sessions about Gacaca were held during soccer matches.
• Election campaign. To get Rwandans to participate in the first footstep of the Gacaca process and elect Gacaca judges, an election campaign was conducted and included posters, stickers, a comic strip, radio spots, and a moving picture that toured the country on the project'due south cine-mobile.
• Gacaca vocal contest. This competition was held throughout the land, with winners selected at the provincial level to compete at the national level, where the g prize winners were announced.

Development Issues:

Disharmonize, Political Evolution, Rights.

Key Points:

The Gacaca communication campaign was conducted throughout the land, just was limited in scope due to timing and funding parameters. The roll-out of the bodily Gacaca justice plan took much longer than expected - only 11% reported that the procedure had started in their sector in the final evaluation of the communication programme - while express funding did not allow the campaign to go along past Stage Three. Nonetheless, results from the evaluation survey indicate positive motion in terms of mental attitude and behaviours regarding the Gacaca Jurisdictions.

According to evaluators (click here for an evaluation [PDF]), the combined use of modern and traditional media and the wide diversity of campaign materials and activities made it possible to reach the various socio-demographic groups that the campaign addressed: four-fifths of the respondents reported exposure to at least one campaign material or activeness and almost one-half were exposed to five or more different campaign materials or activities. Cognition about Gacaca jurisdictions was high, with 96% of respondents reporting they had heard about Gacaca jurisdictions. There as well appears to be a sort of dose-response human relationship between entrada exposure and cognition: the college the level of exposure, the higher the level of cognition. Findings as well signal that the campaign had greater impact amidst women compared to men. Among women, even a low level of exposure makes significant difference in terms of cognition. It is, all the same, pertinent to mention that by the finish of the campaign, in that location was however a loftier level of misinformation about the jurisdictions and noesis about some provisions of the Gacaca law; for case, knowledge about the communal work scheme and guilty plea provision remained low.

The data indicate that the entrada helped to both foster participation in the Gacaca procedure and promote positive attitudes towards participation. In the communities where Gacaca jurisdictions have started their activities, the level of participation is relatively high. Amidst the respondents that have withal to participate in the activities of the jurisdictions, participation intentions are very loftier. At that place is a significant dose-response human relationship between campaign exposure and such participation indicators as actual participation in the meetings of Gacaca jurisdictions, participation intentions, and personal advancement in favour of participation. There as well appears to be a positive link between campaign exposure and optimism about the future of the Rwandan guild.

Partner Text:

Ministry of Justice, Heart for Conflict Management, ORINFOR, IBUKA, Collectif des Ligues et Associations des Droits de fifty'Homme (CLADHO), Muslim Clan of Rwanda, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Wellness Center for Communication Programs.

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Source: https://www.comminit.com/edutain-africa/content/gacaca-living-together-again-rwanda

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