ABSTRACT
Criminal law has many roles, including retribution, punishment, restoration, and protection of the community and property. One of the principal roles of criminal law is deterrence. Considering numbers, victims usually outnumber perpetrators, and thus would have the upper hand if they banded together, protested, fought back. Governments and prosecutors need to enact a policy of no sympathy for defendants. This is, of course, not to say that human rights should not be applicable, but the rhetoric of treading with caution around elderly defendants should not apply to perpetrators of mass atrocities. South Africa and Rwanda have commonalities in their recent history: namely, states in which international crimes have occurred, on a mass scale. In South Africa, decades of Apartheid only ended 20 years ago, leaving the state still dealing with the aftermath. It seems incongruous that South Africa and Rwanda are not promoting same key principles when it comes to perpetrators of mass atrocities who enter their territory.
