International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), (French: Tribunal pénal International Pour le Rwanda), was established in November 8, 1994, by United Nations Security Council resolution 955 in order “to prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighboring states between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.” The ICTR was located in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. It also had an Appeals Chamber located in The Hague, Netherlands. 

On 31 December 2015, the United Nations officially dissolved the ICTR. Its remaining cases were transferred to the jurisdiction of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. During its operation, the ICTR indicted 93 individuals, sentencing 62 of them.

The Rwanda Genocide

The events that pushed the United Nations to create the ICTR started in Rwanda in 1994. On the evening of April 6, 1994, the aircraft carrying Juvenal Habyarimana, the President of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi, was deliberately destroyed in Kigali. Both presidents died, shattering the delicate peace that had been established between the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which represented the Tutsi ethnic group, and the Rwandan Government, which was filled with Hutus.

Rwanda then fell into a period of ethnic-based violence, in which the Hutus attacked the Tutsis. The scale of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during this time was staggering. During this period, between 800,000 and 1 million men, women, and children, primarily Tutsis, were massacred. 

The Crimes Prosecuted by the ICTR

The ICTR statute established the following list of crimes under its jurisdiction:

See: UNSC, Report on the Completion Strategy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, UN Doc. S/2015/340, (May 15, 2015).

[Last updated in May of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]