Rachovitsa: Léon Mugesera: A Convicted Genocidaire Seeking Justice before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights?

Mando Rachovitsa (Univ. of Groningen - Law) has posted Léon Mugesera: A Convicted Genocidaire Seeking Justice before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights? (Harvard Human Rights Journal Online). Here's the abstract:

This Article discusses the Léon Mugesera v. Republic of Rwanda judgment issued by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR), in November 2020, concerning Léon Mugesera, a convicted genocidaire from Rwanda. In 2016, Mugesera was convicted by the Rwandan courts of incitement to genocide and sentenced to life in prison for giving the infamous Mugesera speech, an inflammatory anti-Tutsi speech which was broadcasted on public radio in November 1993, a few months before the outbreak of the genocide in Rwanda. He appealed the Rwandan decision in the Court of Appeal and also resorted to the ACtHPR alleging violations of the right to a fair trial, the right to the respect of the human dignity, the right to his physical and mental integrity, and the right to family under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). A few months before the ACtHPR issued its judgment, the Rwandan Court of Appeal found Mugesera guilty of inciting ethnic hatred and persecution as a crime against humanity, among other crimes, and upheld the life sentence imposed on him.

The ACtHPR’s Mugesera judgment is of particular interest for three reasons. First, Léon Mugesera is the second case, following Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza v. Republic of Rwanda, in which the ACtHPR has found that Rwanda violated the ACHPR. Both cases involved aspects of Rwanda’s genocidal past. Second, Rwanda did not appear before the ACtHPR to defend itself and the Court had to address the difficulties posed by the respondent state’s absence with regard to deciding the merits of the case. Third, the ACtHPR awarded the applicant a considerable amount of money for pecuniary reparations, bringing to the fore the question of whether one’s prior conviction to inciting ethnic hatred and persecution as a crime against humanity could, or should, preclude such compensation.

This Article starts off with discussing the personal jurisdiction of the ACtHPR and it subsequently turns to explain the merits of the complaints raised by the applicant. The analysis proceeds to critically reflect upon the ACtHPR’s approach with regard to cases of non-appearance of the respondent state and awarding reparation for moral damages.