Rights, responsibilities and reform: a study of French justice (1990-2016)

The principal questions addressed in this portfolio of eleven publications concern the reforms to French justice at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. The portfolio is accompanied by a supporting statement explaining the genesis and chronology of the portfolio, its originality and the nature of the submission's distinct contribution to knowledge. The thesis questions whether the reforms protect the rights of the defence adequately. It considers how the French state views its responsibility to key figures in criminal justice, be they suspected and convicted criminals, the victims of offences or the professionals who are prosecuting the offences. It reflects upon the role of the examining magistrate, the delicate relationship between justice, politics and the media, breaches of confidentiality and the catastrophic conditions in which suspects and prisoners are detained in French prisons. It then extends its scope to a case study of the prosecution of violent crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and discovers significant flaws in procedures even at international levels. In concluding, it asks whether, given the challenges facing the French criminal justice system, French courts are adequately equipped to assure justice when suspects charged with the most serious international crimes appear before them under the principle of universal jurisdiction. The research, carried out over a number of years, relies predominantly on an analysis of French-language sources and represents a unique contribution to the understanding and knowledge of French justice for an English-speaking public at the turn of the twenty-first century

France, universal jurisdiction and Rwandan génocidaires: the Simbikangwa trial

YesIn 2014, twenty years after the Rwandan genocide, the first trial took place in France of a Rwandan génocidaire, Pascal Simbikangwa, despite the presence on French territory of a number of genocide suspects for many years, various extradition requests by Rwanda – declined by France – and numerous arrests and investigations. This article looks at issues of jurisdiction regarding the Simbikangwa case and the reasons the French courts heard his case, and examines some issues which may be of significance in the choice of arena for the bringing to justice of Rwandans genocide suspects living in France in future

How far has the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda really come since Akayesu in the prosecution and investigation of sexual offences committed against women? An analysis of Ndindiliyimana et al

YesDuring the first trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), that of Jean-Paul Akayesu, it became evident that many Tutsi and moderate Hutu women had been raped, that “rape was the rule and its absence was the exception”.1 Although, initially, not a single charge of sexual violence was proffered against Akayesu, presiding judge Navanethem Pillay interrupted the proceedings, allowing ICTR prosecutors to amend the indictment and include counts of rape and sexual violence. Akayesu subsequently became the first case to recognise the concept of genocidal rape. However, post-Akayesu, comparatively few defendants appearing before the ICTR have been convicted of sexual violence. An analysis of the recent case of Ndindiliyimana et al2 reveals that major shortcomings beset the investigation and prosecution procedures, so that crimes of sexual violence go unpunished, although research suggests that adequate legislation is in place at the ICTR to prosecute rape and sexual violence successfully

A transient search using combined human and machine classifications

Large modern surveys require efficient review of data in order to find transient sources such as supernovae, and to distinguish such sources from artefacts and noise. Much effort has been put into the development of automatic algorithms, but surveys still rely on human review of targets. This paper presents an integrated system for the identification of supernovae in data from Pan-STARRS1, combining classifications from volunteers participating in a citizen science project with those from a convolutional neural network. The unique aspect of this work is the deployment, in combination, of both human and machine classifications for near real-time discovery in an astronomical project. We show that the combination of the two methods outperforms either one used individually. This result has important implications for the future development of transient searches, especially in the era of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and other large-throughput surveys

De la reconciliation a l'integration regionale - L'exemple franco-allemand comme reference a la reconciliation au Rwanda

YesHow, after 1945, did France and Germany succeed in overcoming their rivalry, a rivalry marked by numerous bloody conflicts, to heal the wounds of the past and work towards a common European future? How, after 1994, did Rwanda succeed in overcoming the devastation of the genocide and reconcile its communities, to become a key actor in East African regional integration? These two difficult reconciliations are at first sight very different, but they warrant comparison, in order to gain a better understanding of the strategies which enabled each party in each case to overcome the most unimaginable challenges. Through their respective approaches, addressing the scars of the past and via respectful joint acts of remembrance, France and Germany on the one hand and the Rwandan communities on the other, have been able to rediscover peace and form a desire to work together as well as with their neighbors towards attaining a more prosperous future