National Jurist - January 2008 - (Page 20) Justice in the wake of genocide American legal intern gets a close-up look at impact of Rwandan tragedy ow do you forgive someone who murders your brother in front of you? It’s a question that Rebecca O’Neill, a University of Illinois School of Law 2L, asked herself after spending a summer in Rwanda. “In Rwanda I have met people w h o h a ve d o n e By Michelle Weyenberg just that,” she said. “When I meet people like this, I am astounded by their grace and strength.” It was her second trip back to the country in which its citizens, and the world, are still in turmoil over the 1994 genocide. The 26-year-old North Carolina native arrived at the National Service of Gacaca Courts in Kigali, Rwanda last June, and was joined as an intern by another American law student. Both were the firstever interns at Gacaca. Her interest in Rwanda stemmed from work she did as an undergraduate. O’Neill served as a grant writer and program planner for the small non-profit company Forum for Activists Against Torture (FACT) in Kigali, Rwanda, after graduating with a degree in social work from the University of North Carolina in 2004. As a social work major, she was AP PHOTO/KAREL PRINSLOO Rebecca O’Neill, a law student at the University of Illinois School of Law, made her second trip to Rwanda this past summer, interning at the National Service of Gacaca Courts in Kigali — reporting on their successes and failures. O’Neill said the progress in Rwanda since 1994 in incredible. communities were surviving in the wake of such a catastrophic event,” O’Neill said. “I initially went to Rwanda to learn from individuals and organizations who were rebuilding the country, and I wanted to lend any support I could to that effort.” Her work over the past summer was driven by the same basic desire. “Even as I try to give an overview of jusand established in 2001 in Rwanda, in the wake of the Rwandan Genocide. Gacaca is a controversial system to say the least. The lack of attorneys and professional judges during trials has raised the ire of several leading international non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Penal Reform International. Becoming an ‘ambassador’ At the time, no American had ever interned at Gacaca. O’Neill said she got the impression that it was due to the facts that in the past Gacaca was more hesitant to invite outsiders into a controversial government operation and because no one asked. “The opportunity to work for Gacaca combined my interests as a social worker and legal education,” she said. During her time in Gacaca’s Legal Support Unit, her co-workers referred to her as an “ambassador,” which made her very proud. “I feel a responsibility to share the state “I don’t think anyone inside or out of Rwanda would have predicted that such an innovative and organized system could have been implemented.” — Rebecca O’Neill, 2L, University of Illinois School of Law interested in collective resiliency and communities that overcome extreme difficulty. “I read as much as possible about the Rwandan genocide and how Rwandan tice in Rwanda today, I find myself starting with that year, and with the one million people that died in a mere 100 days,” O’Neill wrote in an essay about her trip. The Gacaca court is part of a system of community justice inspired by tradition 20 THE NATIONAL JURIST January 2008
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