APPLETON, WIS. — Roman Boed, legal officer with the Appeals Chamber of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda discusses the origins of the court and its role in prosecuting perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in an address at Lawrence University.
A 1987 Lawrence graduate, Boed presents “The Development of International Criminal Law: The Case of Rwanda” Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102. Free and open to the public, the address is an extension of Lawrence’s Povolny International Studies Lecture Series “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions” that began last spring.
Evolved from the military trials at Nuremberg following World War II, international criminal tribunals were established in the 1990s to prosecute the mass violations of human rights in the former Yugoslavia and during the Rwandan genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people died, most of whom were members of the country’s ethnic Tutsi minority.
In the 10 years since the first trial began, the Rwandan tribunal has prosecuted more than 80 cases, including the former prime minister, other former government ministers as well as military, religious and local political leaders. The tribunal’s conviction of a Rwandan mayor in 1998 was the first ever conviction by an international tribunal for the crime of genocide while the former prime minister’s conviction for genocide confirmed to the world that the concept of “sovereign immunity” would no longer protect government leaders from responsibility for mass atrocities.
The international tribunal, according to Boed, has played an important role in restoring peace and justice in Rwanda.
“Through its work, the tribunal has exposed those most responsible for the genocide as criminals, discrediting the extremist ideology that fuelled the genocide,” says Boed, who works with the court in The Hague, Netherlands. “In case after case, the tribunal’s judgments have recognized that genocide against the Tutsis took place in Rwanda, foreclosing any future historical revisionism on this issue.”
Boed first joined the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1999 as an associate legal officer. He spent two years as the tribunal’s judgment coordinator before moving to the tribunal’s appeals chamber as legal officer, overseeing the legal support section of the ICTR Appeals Chamber.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in government and economics from Lawrence, Boed earned a law degree from DePaul University, studied at Oxford University and earned master of law degrees from both Cambridge University and Columbia Law School. He is currently a doctor of law degree candidate at the University of South Africa.
The “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions” lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of long-time Lawrence government professor Mojmir Povolny, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.
