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Why was the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda created in 1994?

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Adolf Eichmann listening to an Israeli court's verdict — War crime Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann listening as an Israeli court declares him guilty on all counts at his war crimes trial in Jerusalem, 1961.

The United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in November 1994 in direct response to the widespread charges of genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed within Rwanda and by Rwandan citizens in neighboring states during that year.12

The creation of the tribunal served as a formal mechanism to prosecute those responsible for these atrocities, ensuring that individuals could not evade criminal culpability based on their official positions, such as heads of state. By establishing the ICTR, the international community sought to address crimes including murder, torture, and enslavement, and it notably became one of the first international bodies to formally recognize rape and sexual violence as acts of genocide when committed with the specific intent to destroy a particular group.12