On 30 June and 1 July, 2011, SALC together with REDRESS and African Rights organized and hosted the conference, “Closing the Impunity Gap: Southern Africa’s Role in Ensuring Justice for the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda - Moving Beyond the Tribunal’s Completion Strategy and Residual Mechanism”. The conference served as an awareness-raising, capacity building and justice initiative aimed at ending safe havens in Southern Africa for suspects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The event brought together Southern African and European justice officials, officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Minister of Justice and Deputy Chief Justice of Rwanda, civil society organizations, legal practitioners, leading academics and survivors. The event encouraged dialogue on how best to overcome the challenges to bring genocide suspects to justice. The meeting canvassed practical issues such as access to evidence, victim and witness protection, legal frameworks, challenges to extradition, international and regional cooperation and how Southern Africa could learn from efforts undertaken in Europe in relation to the investigation and prosecution of genocide suspects.

See the Conference Overview, Agenda, Background note below.

A Report, drawing on the outcomes of the Conference and additional research carried out by the organisers is available here.

Print Regional Conference on Southern Africa\'s role in Ensuring Justice for the Rwanda Genocide.pdfAgenda - Closing the Impunity Gap- Securing Justice in Southern Africa.pdfClosing the Impunity Gap-Southern Africa and the ICTR-Conference Note.pdf