Courting Rwanda. The promises and pitfalls of the ICTR Outreach Programme

This article aims to assess the contribution of the Outreach Programme at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The author introduces and discusses two general approaches or models of outreach that international criminal tribunals may pursue. The transparency model of outreach seeks to make a tribunal's opaque legal process more visible by disseminating basic information about the court to communities recovering from human rights abuses. The engagement model goes beyond only informing these communities by facilitating frequent and extensive tribunal interaction and dialogue through seminars, town hall presentations, and training of legal professionals. Despite some progress with limited resources, the efforts of the Outreach Programme of the ICTR to engage the Rwandan population and to make the Tribunal more transparent have been ineffective. The article recommends that the ICTR bolster its outreach efforts by helping to train Rwanda's judiciary, appointing more Rwandans to serve in positions of authority at the Tribunal, and engaging domestic and international non-governmental organizations in outreach programme partnerships.