Introductory Note

With the completion of the Appeals Chamber’s Nyiramasuhuko et al. (or Butare) case, the ICTR formally closed its doors on 31 December 2015 with a verdict that has gone down in history on the grounds that Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only female to be indicted by the ICTR, is the first woman to be charged (and convicted) for genocide and rape as crimes against humanity before an international court. Since its opening in 1995, the Tribunal has indicted ninety-three individuals comprising high-ranking military and government officials, politicians, businessmen as well as religious, militia and media leaders, concluding proceedings for eighty-five accused. Throughout its two decades of work, the Tribunal produced a substantial body of jurisprudence on genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, playing a pioneering role in establishing a credible international criminal justice system.