Cases

Problems and Purpose

Various federal departments and agencies of Canada funded the ChoiceWork Dialogue to learn more about their citizens’ expectations of governments, the private sector, and their communities. The goals that Canadian societies seek to achieve are detailed in a “social contract.” When leaders planned for post-war policies after World War II, a primary result was the birth of a welfare state. By the 1970s, government revenue was unable to sustain the dependent system. The outcome was major changes to trade and economic policy.

Gacaca courts are community trials, which try the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. They are a unique and large-scale national experiment in collaborative justice systems, and pose an important precedent for participatory community justice across the world.