Essay on Restorative Justice: Forgiveness is the Best Punishment

Though forgiveness and clemency matter significantly in social life, they play comparatively small roles in criminal justice system. The criminal procedure is dominated by the State whose interests in deterring, debilitating and imposing retribution leave little room for forgiveness. However, justice need not be so austere, intangible and uncongenial. A more modified, concrete criminal justice system could give much better credence to the benefit and needs of the offenders, victims and members of the society. An offender usually inflicts both physical and psychological injuries upon a victim. This kind of an action on the part of the offender, justifies the victim’s resentment of the offender. The resentment protests the injustice of the wrong, the victim’s self-worth, and the wrong-doer’s abuse of his moral agency.

Throughout the 20th century, numerous acts of genocides have attempted to bring the complete elimination and devastation of large groups of people originating from various particular ethnicities. With these genocides occurring in many regions of the world, the perpetrators often organizing such crimes, have historically been larger and more powerful than the victims themselves. Often being the government and its military forces. However, the lack of international response associated with these genocides, further contributed to the devastating outcomes. On April 6,1994, the fastest killing spree of the century took place in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority population. With many warning signs having already been proclaimed prior to the start of the Rwandan genocide, I believe that with international interference, this bloodshed could have ultimately been prevented.

The Rwandan Genocide also is still an existing issue which killed one million people, mostly Tutis and some Hutu’s, continues to be one of the most tragic and memorable events in the contemporary society of Africa. Specifically for those who were involved. Lucie Niyigena, a 70 year old woman who managed to survive the genocide, is still forced to face her fear everyday living beside someone who could have potentially killed a member of her family. This is just one of the still existing hardships for those forced to live it. This problem has not been changed since historical times partly because modern society has chosen not to make the change.

The Rwandan Genocide also is still an existing issue which killed one million people, mostly Tutis and some Hutu’s, continues to be one of the most tragic and memorable events in the contemporary society of Africa. Specifically for those who were involved. Lucie Niyigena, a 70 year old woman who managed to survive the genocide, is still forced to face her fear everyday living beside someone who could have potentially killed a member of her family. This is just one of the still existing hardships for those forced to live it. This problem has not been changed since historical times partly because modern society has chosen not to make the change.

It is said that, “Delivering justice for mass atrocities is a daunting challenge in any country, and the scale of the Rwandan genocide would have overwhelmed even the best­ equipped judicial system” (Rwanda). Even though there were doubts, the government of Rwanda believed that they would be able to deliver justice through the domestic and community courts. It turned out that Rwanda was able to push through and serve their country justice in less than twenty years. The government took great efforts in order to deliver the justice that they felt was necessary for their people. The justice process did not go without sacrifice. Furthermore, “Some have paid a high price. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, in particular, thousands of people were arbitrarily arrested, and many were charged and tried in the absence of solid evidence against them. Some might have been wrongly convicted. The lack of safeguards against abusive prosecutions in a weak judicial system heightened the risk of unfair trials” (Rwanda). This illustrates the flaws that pushing for justice can create. Although it is important for victims to be awarded with a sense of righteousness, rushing the process can cause even more

William Hogan Research Paper Plan Title: Parallels between Holocaust and Rwandan Genocides Background Argument Counter Argument Rebuttal Conclusion Thesis: Genocide is important to understand so we can help prevent future violence on humanity. Political, cultural, economic, and ethnicity differences led to terrible modern day genocides in Rwanda and during the Holocaust. Parallels between the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides can be drawn from the role the state played in mobilizing, organizing, and allowing genocide to take place. 1st: 3-4 pages: synthesize and analyze research and give examples of genocide general, understanding, health, and Holocaust/Rwanda comparisons/differences.

Rwanda genocide victims tried to take refuge in places that they thought were places that they could go for safety. Places like schools, hospitals and churches. Hutu followed them, where they were then just as brutally murdered as any other Tutsi member. Nobody was safe. Hutu who didn’t believe in the genocide were also brutally murdered, the idea was to have a race of just Hutu (Rosenberg, 2014). One of the most gruesome events that happened

Restorative justice is a comparative newcomer to the world of criminal justice; however restorative justice has been around, ‘officially’- by means of legislation for 14 years, and unofficially (in innovative practice), for longer. The knowledge and skills associated with restorative justice have slowly but surely migrated to other services, such as education, with startling results (Daniels, 2013). With the criminal justice system being so unfair and bias for years maybe even centuries, restorative justice has been bought up as a useful tool for victims and offenders. Plenty of scholarly articles, journals, books, and research have been written about Restorative Justice.

The aftermath meant that the predominately Tutsi-led Rwandan government was left with the staggering task of instituting justice, restoring some type of order and to begin reconciliation within Rwandan society. But justice is farm from being reached. In America, it is our constitutional right to a fair and speedy trial that, we hope, in the end delivers some sort of justice.

The genocides of the 20th century which occurred in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the core of these two massacres, patterns existed that outlined how similar thinking and reasoning could lead to something as horrible as these two events. One can see how both groups used their command of knowledge as a way to control the people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how the people were thought of as less than humans to provide a just cause for such terrible acts.

Abimbola, Olaifa and Danjibo Dominic. The 1994 Rwandan Conflict: Genocide or War? International Journal on World Peace. Vol XXX No. 3(2013). 31-54. Print.

The government began using a traditional justice system called Gracaca, this allows local communities to judge and try any suspects (“Rwanda”). Soon, RPF invaded on October 1st 1990, The government responded by arresting and imprisoning roughly eight thousand to ten thousand victims (“Rwanda”).

Throughout the course of human history, violence has been a reoccurring theme in the conquest for power in countries across the planet. Understanding the ideology behind some of this violence have puzzled historians and psychologists for centuries; furthermore, the presence of reconciliation between the victims and perpetrators after some of these horrific acts of terror is even more astonishing. This form of reconciliation was a significant factor during South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) formed in 1996. After close analysis, I have been able to identify the difference between the similar terms of reconciliation and forgiveness, understand the evaluation process of reconciliation between victims and perpetrators

Crime and punishment has made some tremendous changes since the early modern time of the 1600s. A period where a wife, could be found guilty of being a scold, in other words, nagging her husband. Punishments for this crime consist of the wife being duck into the river or pond using a ducking stool that is said to still exist in Canterbury in Kent. The Scold’s Bridle was another form of punishment us for a nagging wife, she was made to wear this bridle as a form of embarrassment for her actions against her husband. In early modern times the homeless made people uncomfortable and scared because of the change in the land that cause them to move from their traditional rural livelihood and became known as vagabonds. If the homeless

The Rwandan genocide has been a topic of discussion and study by many scholars, researchers and humanitarian bodies seeking to find the root cause of its happening. Some found out that deterioration in the political climate was the possible cause. Others argued that the Hutu elite were only safeguarding their political power from the Tutsis who had, under the colonial rule, oppressed the Hutus. The genocide was seen to be the best platform for settling scores between the two ethnic groups.