South African Judge Delivers Lecture

Nearly 150 members of the community Tuesday night gathered to hear Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), deliver Radcliffe College's sixth annual Rothschild Lecture.

Pillay, appointed by President Nelson Mandela as the first black woman on the South African Supreme Court, spoke about the ICTR, which was created by the United Nations in 1994. The tribunal seeks to prosecute those responsible for the genocide and other crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda in 1994. Between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis were killed, and currently 80,000 suspected criminals sit in Rwanda's prisons, which can only accommodate 50,000 occupants.

"It sends the clear message that international law is to be respected and that war crimes are no longer tolerated," she said.

Pillay said that the ICTR represents the first time the U.N. has held those who violate human rights individually accountable. "It affords the opportunity to discredit perceptions that an entire ethnic group was responsible for the genocide," she said.

Pillay discussed many of the issues facing the ICTR, including the designation of sexual violence against women as a war crime, difficulties in locating offenders, witness-protection schemes and dealing with government mismanagement.

"I came because I had heard reports of the massacre but had no idea what was going on," said Josh P. Groban, a second-year Law School student. "Basically I came to hear it from the horse's mouth."

Pillay holds a master of laws degree and a doctor of juridicial science degree from Harvard, and was the first South African to recieve these degrees.