An Exercise in Pragmatism? UNICEF's Approach to Child Rights and the Child GGnocidaire

Abstract

Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, more than 4,500 children were imprisoned, accused of genocide-related crimes. The Convention on the Rights of the Child does not prohibit the prosecution of children but does establish juvenile justice standards. As a state party, Rwanda was under an obligation to comply with these standards as well as its own relevant domestic laws. In its approach to child genocidaires, Rwanda drew on the support of transnational actors, in particular UNICEF, the lead UN agency for children in conflict with the law. Based on an analysis of archival material and semi-structured interviews, this paper examines how UNICEF Rwanda negotiated the tension between pragmatism and normativity in its approach to child genocidaires. It profiles the pragmatic approach adopted by UNICEF Rwanda in the interpretation of international standards, drawing out tensions within UNICEF and between UNICEF Rwanda and other actors over how best to implement the Convention (particularly as regards detention). It then evaluates whether there was risk of weakening the normative content in the desire to implement the standards in a socially-sensitive and context-specific way. The paper argues that, by adopting a pragmatic approach and using the Convention as a framework rather than a blueprint, UNICEF Rwanda was, to some extent, able to translate the ‘idealistic’ principles of the Convention into practical implementation in the difficult context of post-genocide Rwanda.