Jean-Paul Akayesu (born 1953 in Taba) is a former

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, school inspector, and

Republican Democratic Movement The Republican Democratic Movement (, MDR) was a political party in Rwanda. History The party was established in 1991,politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

from

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

, convicted of

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

for his role in inciting the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Life

Akayesu was the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Taba commune Taba was a commune located in the historic Gitarama Prefecture of Rwanda. During the Rwandan genocide in 1994 massacres and atrocities were committed in Taba. The Hutu Interahamwe militia murdered hundreds of Tutsi and Tutsi women were raped in gove ...

Gitarama prefecture Gitarama was one of the former twelve provinces of Rwanda, provinces (''intara'') of Rwanda and was situated in the centre of the country, to the west of the capital Kigali. Gitarama Prefecture was created in 1959, increasing the number of prefe ...

from April 1993 until June 1994. As mayor, he was responsible for performing executive functions and maintaining order in Taba, meaning he had command of the communal police and any gendarmes assigned to the commune. He was subject only to the

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

. He was considered well-liked and intelligent. During the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi of mid-1994, Akayesu enabled the killing, rape and violation of many

Tutsi The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...

s in his commune. Akayesu not only refrained from stopping the killings, but personally supervised the systemic murder of Tutsis. He also gave a death list to other

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

s, and ordered house-to-house searches to locate Tutsis.

Trial

Akayesu was arrested in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

in October 1995, making Zambia the first African nation to extradite criminals to the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...

(ICTR). In 1996,

Godeliève Mukasarasi Godeliève Mukasarasi (born 1959) is a Rwandan social worker, genocide survivor, and rural development activist. She created the organization Sevota to support widowed women and their children after the genocide. In 2018, she was given an Interna ...

was contacted by the United Nations to assist in putting together a case against him. Mukasarasi was intimidated and her husband and daughter were killed but she found four people who were willing to testify. She was given an

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

in 2018 for this and other work. He stood trial for 15 counts of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

, including

rape during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person wh ...

and violations of the

Geneva Convention upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

. It was the first ever prosecution brought under the auspices of the

Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...

. Pierre-Richard Prosper was the lead prosecutor. Akayesu's defence team argued that Akayesu had no part in the killings, and that he had been powerless to stop them. In short, the defence argued, Akayesu was being made a scapegoat for the crimes of the people of Taba. Despite this defence, the ICTR found him guilty of 9 counts of genocide, numerous crimes against humanity and direct and public incitement to commit genocide; however, he was found not guilty for the counts of

complicity in genocide Complicity in genocide is illegal under international law both for individuals, as part of international criminal law, and state parties to the Genocide Convention. The latter was first held in the Bosnian genocide case (2007) in which the Internat ...

, Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (war crime), and Article 4(2)(e) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions. This was notable in that it was the first time that the 1948

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an International Agreement, international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of ...

was enforced and in doing so clearly differentiated the mental element of the crime Genocide from the mental element in the breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The court clarified that Genocide is a crime of specific intent that takes the accused outside of the scope of armed conflict. On October 2, 1998, Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was represented by

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

lawyer John Philpot, brother of

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

politician and author

Robin Philpot Robin Philpot (born 1948) is a Quebec journalist and 2007 electoral candidate for the Parti Québécois. Background Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, where his father Roderick Philpot was an alderman of the city of Fort William, Philpot is ...

; this connection later surfaced in the

2007 Quebec general election 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has symbolic associations in religion, mythology, supers ...

after statements from Robin Philpot's book ''Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard'' appearing to deny the extent of the genocide were widely publicized. Here is the relevant section of the September 1999

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

report: Fourth Annual Report of the

to the General Assembly (September 1999) ''"Report of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January and 31 December 1994":''

''The Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu (ICTR-96-4-T)''

''14. On 2 September 1998, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judges Laïty Kama, Presiding, Lennart Aspegren and
Navanethem Pillay Navanethem "Navi" Pillay (born 23 September 1941) is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay was the first non-white woman ju ...
, found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of 9 of the 15 counts proffered against him, including
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
(
extermination Extermination or exterminate may refer to: * Pest control, elimination of insects or vermin * Extermination (crime), the killing of human on a large scale * Genocide, at least one of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in par ...
,
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
,
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
,
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
and other inhumane acts). Jean Paul Akayesu was found not guilty of the six remaining counts, including the count of complicity in genocide and the counts relating to violations of article 3 common to the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
and of Additional Protocol II thereto.''

''15. The Akayesu judgement includes the first interpretation and application by an international court of the 1948
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an International Agreement, international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of ...
.''

''16. The Trial Chamber held that rape, which it defined as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive", and sexual assault constitute acts of genocide insofar as they were committed with the
intent to destroy Genocidal intent is the specific mental element, or , required to classify an act as genocide under international law, particularly the 1948 Genocide Convention. To establish genocide, perpetrators must be shown to have had the '' dolus speciali ...
, in whole or in part, a targeted group, as such. It found that sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the
Tutsi The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...
ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide.''

''17. On 2 September 1998, Jean Paul Akayesu was sentenced to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...
for each of the nine counts, the sentences to run concurrently.''

''18. Both Jean Paul Akayesu and the Prosecutor have appealed against the judgement rendered by the Trial Chamber.''

Akayesu was first transferred to Mali on 9 December 2001 to serve out his sentence, before later being transferred to

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

on 19 December 2020. The trial is the subject of the 2015 documentary film, '' The Uncondemned''.

References

External links

ICTR case documents for Jean Paul Akayesu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akayesu, Jean 1953 births Living people Hutu people Republican Democratic Movement politicians People convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Rwandan people convicted of genocide Rwandan people convicted of crimes against humanity Rwandan people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Mali Rwandan prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by international courts and tribunals People extradited from Zambia Mayors of places in Rwanda Rwandan educators People convicted of incitement to genocide Prisoners and detainees of Benin Violence against women in Rwanda