A Genocide Before the Genocide? Assessing the Massacres Against the Abagogwe in Rwanda in Legal Terms

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dc.abstract.enFor the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Rwandan Genocide started in April 1994 and ended in July of the same year, due to the relevant United Nations Security Council resolution, which tasked the ICTR to prosecute the genocide. In recent years, several authors have claimed that the genocide against the Tutsi to be preceded by another genocide: the massacres against the Bagogwe in the northern part of the country. In this article, we discuss the evidentiary background of these claims, assess them in terms of International Criminal Law and the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with the aim to establish whether they fulfilled the criteria for a genocide. We emphasize the importance of the protected group criteria and the issue of the perpetrators’ genocidal intent. We conclude that the massacres against the Bagogwe fulfilled even the demanding requirements of the ICTR’s concept of crimes against humanity. However, at first sight, the Bagogwe seem to lack the necessary characteristics of a group protected by the Genocide Convention. By applying the Akayesu criteria of ‘any stable and permanent’ group and new research showing they were targeted not just as Tutsi but specificly as traditional cattle holding Tutsi, we propose to overcome this obstacle.
dc.affiliationWydział Nauk Społecznych w Warszawie
dc.affiliationInstytut Nauk Społecznych
dc.contributor.authorGaruka, Christian
dc.contributor.authorKemp, Gerhard
dc.contributor.authorBachmann, Klaus
dc.date.access2026-08-31
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-31T08:57:34Z
dc.date.available2026-08-31T08:57:34Z
dc.date.created2026-07-31
dc.date.issued2026-08-11
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.grantnumber2025/ 57/B/HS3/00075
dc.description.granttitleGovernance and collective identity formation in precolonial and early colonial Rwanda
dc.description.sdgPeaceJusticeAndStrongInstitutions
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.identifier.eissn1571-8123
dc.identifier.issn1567-536X
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/2501
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://brill.com/view/journals/icla/aop/article-10.1163-15718123-bja10288/article-10.1163-15718123-bja10288.xml?srsltid=AfmBOor7PDH5a9vppPtSu-eZl7luwyY2WqNkTiXGi7RMjN4Te2TKvUly&ebody=Article%20details
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationnauki o polityce i administracji
dc.rightsClosedAccess
dc.rights.explanationEditor wants to earn money.
dc.rights.questionNo_rights
dc.share.articleOTHER
dc.subject.engenocide
dc.subject.enRwanda
dc.subject.enjurisdiction
dc.subject.enUN Security Council
dc.subject.enabagogwe
dc.subject.enInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
dc.swps.sciencecloudnosend
dc.titleA Genocide Before the Genocide? Assessing the Massacres Against the Abagogwe in Rwanda in Legal Terms
dc.title.journalInternational Criminal Law Review
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle