{"id":4095,"date":"2021-11-09T09:36:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T09:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down"},"modified":"2021-11-09T10:26:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T10:26:44","slug":"end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down","title":{"rendered":"End of era: Hope for justice as Judge Meron steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Judge Theodor Meron, 91, has informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through President Carmel Agius, of his intention to resign from the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) as of November 17, the UN Court confirms.<\/p>\n

The American judge was in the past called out for unjustifiably reducing sentences of Genocide convicts \u2013 and acquitting a number of others \u2013 when he served as the President of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).<\/p>\n

Following with closure of the tribunal on December 31, 2015, he became the president of the mechanism until he was replaced by Agius. Genocide survivors often voiced disappointment in Meron over a number of decisions he took, that were not in the interest of justice.<\/p>\n

For them, his exit has been long overdue and they can \u201conly thank God now that he is leaving.\u201d Egide Nkuranga, the acting president of Ibuka, the umbrella organisation of Genocide survivors associations, said \u201cwe are more than happy to get this pleasant information\u201d of Meron stepping down.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring his presidency of the Mechanism, he released genocidaires and seemed to be cooperating with them. In a nutshell, he was assisting perpetrators by not considering all facts against them,\u201d Nkuranga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was against our efforts in searching for justice and many of our members are dying because of age and without justice. Incredible!\u201d<\/p>\n

The American judge\u2019s stepping down, which is welcomed by rights activists and survivors of the 1994 genocide welcome \u2013 marks two decades from the commencement of his first term as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).<\/p>\n

Yolande Mukagasana, a Genocide survivor and president of the Yolande Mukagasana Foundation whose objectives include fighting against denial and revisionism of the 1994 Genocide, told The New Times that Meron\u2019s stepping down brings hope that genocide survivors can eventually get justice.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI am so happy. The Yolande Mukagasana Foundation is happy that he is going to step down. Ever since 1959 when the Tutsi were persecuted we thought that the ICTR had come to unite us with the UN but, instead, Meron arrived and put a barrier between us.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenocide survivors will now have hope that the UN can now deliver justice since he had, among others, released many genocide masterminds.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 2001, Meron served on the Appeals Chamber of both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) until the closure of these Tribunals, and was a Judge of the Mechanism since it commenced operating in 2012.<\/p>\n

Alain Gauthier, president of Collectif des Parties Civiles pours le Rwanda (CPCR), a France-based rights group which has for two decades worked to bring Genocide suspects living in France to book, seemed to bemoan the fact that Meron \u201cis old enough to take advantage of his retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauthier noted: \u201cPersonally, I cannot regret his stepping down in view of the decisions he took concerning the reductions of sentence he granted to ICTR convicts.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 14 of the convicts were granted early release in a process seen as lacking transparency as well as not being consistent with procedures of the UN court set up to prosecute masterminds of the 1994 Genocide.<\/p>\n

Meron\u2019s controversial decisions at the helm of a UN court mandated to try masterminds of the 1994 Genocide include the release of convicted Genocide masterminds including Ferdinand Nahimana and Father Emmanuel Rukundo who had been serving their sentences in Mali.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Nahimana, the chief propagandist of Hutu Power, a racist ideologue and the inspiration behind the hate-radio, RTLM, was freed from prison under an \u2018early release\u2019 provision.<\/p>\n

In 2019, he released Aloys Simba, who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for organising killings in Kaduha, Murambi, and Kibeho. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but ended up being released eight years early.<\/p>\n

Some convicts released early regrouped and organised themselves in groups now denying the 1994 Genocide and propagating the genocide ideology. Meron\u2019s influence was manifested at the appellate level in cases of Protais Zigiranyirazo, Justin Mugenzi, Prosper Mugiraneza, Augustin Ndindiriyimana, Fran\u00e7ois Xavier Nzuwonemeye, among others.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Judge Theodor Meron, 91, has informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through President Carmel Agius, of his intention to resign from the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) as of November 17, the UN Court confirms. The American judge was in the past called out for unjustifiably reducing sentences of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,761,28,14],"tags":[760,763,2543,2544,758],"class_list":["post-4095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-hope","tag-judge-meron-steps-down","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nEnd of era: Hope for justice as Judge Meron steps down - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Judge Theodor Meron, 91, has informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through President Carmel Agius, of hi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"End of era: Hope for justice as Judge Meron steps down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judge Theodor Meron, 91, has informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through President Carmel Agius, of hi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-09T09:36:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-09T10:26:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/11\/img-618a4cccbb525.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"End of era: Hope for justice as Judge Meron steps down\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-09T09:36:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-09T10:26:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\"},\"wordCount\":693,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/11\/img-618a4cccbb525.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Hope\",\"Judge Meron steps down\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/end-of-era-hope-for-justice-as-judge-meron-steps-down\",\"name\":\"End of era: Hope for justice as Judge Meron steps down - 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