On April 20, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 74/273, entitled International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
This process culminated in the decision of the Appeals Chamber (the Judicial Notice) that settled any ambiguity regarding what had transpired in Rwanda; it would once and for all place any reservations or “comments” beyond debate, by characterising the facts they had assembled as being “beyond any dispute and do not require proof.”
On June, 16, 2006, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR in the trial of Prosecutor vs Karemera, Ngirumpatse and Nzirorera (ICTR-98-44-AR73 (C)) affirmed that indeed a genocide against the Tutsi had taken place in Rwanda.
It instructed that “all the current and pending trials before the Trial Chambers of the ICTR” must refer to the following as facts “beyond any dispute and not requiring any proof”: The existence of Twa, Tutsi and Hutu as protected groups falling under the Genocide Convention; The following state of affairs existed in Rwanda between April 6, 1994, to July 17, 1994: there were throughout Rwanda widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population based on Tutsi ethnic identification.
While the 7th of April is Genocide Commemoration Day in Rwanda, the 13th of April commemorates ‘other groups’ that were victimised during the genocide, particularly those who resisted the genocidal government in one way or another, mostly opposition politicians, the majority of whom are Hutus.
