Rwanda (January 2023)

  • APPLICATION DETAILS:

Priority Application Deadline:
October 21, 2022

Priority Notification Deadline:
October 28, 2022

Commitment Deadline:
November 4, 2022

CLICK FOR THE 2023 GFI APPLICATION 

Please note: Applications will continue to be accepted for this program until it fills

Rwanda: A Study of Justice and Reconciliation

Course Number: GLOB1-GC 3085.001 (3 credits)

Term:  January 2023 

Location:  Rwanda; Kigali

Travel Dates: January 13-21, 2023

NY-based Pre-Departure Course Sessions (REQUIRED):

  • 6 prior sessions in NY (condensed into 3 classes): Friday Nov. 11, 18; Dec. 2, 2022 (4-7 pm)

Instructor: Jennifer Trahan

Degree Requirement: With the approval of the department, this course can count as a concentration requirement. If not taken toward concentration requirements, the course will count toward your elective credits.

Registration for program: All students must apply for this program using the online application form and with the submission of a personal statement uploaded to the form.  Accepted students will be registered by the department.

Documents: A valid passport is required for entry.  Visas are required for U.S. Citizens and for many non-U.S. Citizens.  All students will be advised regarding visa requirements by the department. Use this resource link to help you determine your visa requirements.

 

Course/Program Description:

Indescribably horrific crimes were committed in 1994 during the genocide in Rwanda, resulting in approximately 800,000 to 1 million fatalities.  Approximately 3/4th of the adult male Tutsi population, as well as moderate Hutus, were killed in approximately 100 days.  How does a country rebuild after such horribly devastating atrocities?  How does it attempt to achieve justice?  And, is reconciliation between perpetrators and victims possible?  These are some of the questions we will examine. 

After background on the events surrounding the genocide, the course will focus on the 3 separate trial mechanisms designed to achieve accountability for the crimes committed: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (which tried the highest level perpetrators in Arusha, Tanzania); Rwandan domestic courts (which tried organizers and leaders of the genocide, and those accused of rape); and the domestic mechanism knows as “Gacaca” whereby lower-level perpetrators of the genocide were tried throughout Rwanda.  We will critically examine each mechanism, and looking at the extent to which each has achieved justice and/or contributed to reconciliation.  We will also examine grassroots reconciliation efforts within Rwanda, and memorialization of the genocide, visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and churches surrounding Kigali that have developed into memorial sites after mass executions occurred there.

Meetings to be set up will include those with: (1) government officials involved in local genocide trials; (2) academics involved in “Gacaca” trials; (3) meetings with survivors organizations IBUKA and AVEGA; (4) the Prosecutor General’s office and individuals involved with the Fugitive Tracking Unit; (5) those working on grassroots reconciliation (including a visit to a “reconciliation village”); and (6) staff at the Genocide Memorial and Library in Kigali, and genocide memorials outside Kigali (Nyamata and Ntarama).  The trip will start with an orientation walk around Kigali (the Nyamirambo Women’s Walking Tour), and conclude with travel to eastern Rwanda, for game drives at Akagera National Park, staying at the Akagera Game Lodge.

Site Visits and Excursions May Include:

Genocide Memorial, Kigali
Camp Kigali/ Belgian Memorial site
Nyamirambo Walking Tour
Ntarama and Nyamata churches (outside Kigali)
Mbyo “reconciliation village” (outside Kigali)

Trip Leader:

Jennifer Trahan, Clinical Professor

Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor at the Center for Global Affairs. She teaches: International Law; Human Rights; International Justice; Transitional Justice; U.S. Use of Force & the “Global War on Terror”; a field intensive on Justice in the former Yugoslavia, which travels to Bosnia, Serbia and The Hague; and a field intensive to Rwanda. She has served as counsel and of counsel to the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch; Iraq Prosecutions Consultant to the International Center of Transitional Justice; and worked on cases before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She is the author of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (HRW 2010), and Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Topical Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (HRW 2006). The latter book was released by Universidad Iberoamericana in Spanish, and her earlier books have been translated by the UNDP into Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, and by Human Rights Watch into French. She is also the author of several book chapters and numerous law reviews, including “Why the Killing in Darfur is Genocide” and “The Rome Statute’s Amendment on the Crime of Aggression: Negotiations at the Kampala Review Conference,” as well as several articles about the work of the Iraqi High Tribunal. She has also attended the International Criminal Court’s Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, and the International Criminal Court’s Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda. She is Chairperson of the American Branch of the International Law Association’s International Criminal Court Committee, and a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law, as well as the International Law Association’s Committee on Use of Force. She has also taught at Columbia University, Fordham Law School, Brooklyn Law School, The New School, and lectures at Salzburg Law School’s Summer Institute on International Criminal Law.

Prior to entering the field of international law, she spent 10 years in private practice as a litigator at the New York City law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. She holds an A.B. from Amherst College, a J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law and an LL.M from Columbia Law School, specializing in international law. 

 

Itinerary:

Friday night, January 13, 2022 (arrive in Kigali); Saturday, January 14 (orientation; visit the Nyamirambo Women’s Center and guided walking tour; visit to the Kigali Memorial Center); Sunday January 15 (visit Ntarama and Nyamata memorial sites; meeting with Prison Fellowship Rwanda; visit to a “reconciliation village”); Monday, January 16–Thursday, January 19 (additional meetings in and outside Kigali); Friday, January 20 (game drive at Akagera National Park for a safari and stay at the Akagera Game Lodge); Saturday January 21 (transfer back to Kigali and free to depart).

Program Costs:

Tuition: 3 Credits Tuition

Program Fee: $1,768 (double room)

The program fee includes the following:

  • Lodging

  • Breakfasts

  • three special dinners and seven group lunches

  • All in-country transportation, (flight to and from Rwanda NOT Included)

  • All meetings and special guest lectures

  • Planned cultural excursions/tours

  • Geoblue travel health insurance

NOT Included:

Airfare, airport transfers, passport/visa fees as needed, personal items such as wines, liquors, laundry services, special arrangements before or after the program, and other items not specifically mentioned as included. Insurance for trip cancellation, flight cancellation, luggage loss or damage, medical and accident is not included but is strongly recommended.

Cancellations and Refunds

Program cancellations must be made in writing.  To protect yourself, we recommend that you purchase flight cancellation insurance.