BY GODFREY NTAGUNGIRA

The Government of Rwanda has laid out elaborate goals which are intended to set out the road map on how the ministry of justice should proceed in accordance with the national framework for fighting poverty, otherwise known as the EDPRS.

Goals and linkages

1. To strengthen unity and reconciliation among the citizenry.

2. To reform the criminal justice system such as Gacaca courts in order to uphold human rights and the rule of law in Rwanda.
3. To build a strong and secure state, anchored on good governance, rule of law, social cohesion inclusion and protection guaranteed by an efficient state.

4. For Rwanda to achieve its larger development goals it needs to have a sound institutional environment that ensures universal access to quality justice, eradicating genocide ideology and deepening the culture of rule of law within Rwanda.

5. Others include the promotion of transparency, accountability, mediation, unity and reinforcing reconciliation mechanisms and Public safety as well as maintenance of law and order.

Justifications

The authors of EDPRS believe that good governance exert primordial influence over the society’s stability, prosperity and the wellbeing of its citizens.

In turn, long term stability of governance is heavily dependent upon the belief of Rwandans in the justness and fairness of the country’s governing institutions.

This is why the government puts efforts on strengthening good governance as a pre-condition for poverty reduction and development.

Establishing an Autonomous Judiciary

Based on the judiciary’s strategic plan for 2008-2012, Rwanda is in the process of establishing a robust and independent Judiciary as a key component of strengthening the rule of law in the country.

The Rwandan constitution guarantees a judiciary sector that is not subject to executive branch interference, one which operates impartially, and able to institute checks and balances to the executive.

However, the judiciary’s current strategic plan highlights the need to bolster public confidence in the Judiciary’s independence.

A functioning judiciary has been re-established and rehabilitated from the events of the 1994 Tutsi genocide. A Successful trial of about 5,000 genocide suspects with differing verdicts and sentences has been accomplished.

Thousands of genocide suspects have been released from detention on the grounds of tender age, old age, insufficient evidence, sickness or other compelling legal reasons.

The government acknowledges the challenges of developing a vibrant and independent judicial institutions. Key concerns includes ensuring that these institutions are operating in a framework and environment that permits their coordination especially in terms of analysis, formulation, decision, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies.

The government hopes to build a modern judiciary which is a radical departure from the justice system of the previous regimes which had bolstered the culture of impunity that characterized the history of Rwanda.

Thus considerable work has been accomplished in the area of re-establishing and strengthening good governance within Rwanda.

Rwanda has ratified major international human treaties. This includes the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

These international treaty obligations are expressly recognized in the preamble of the country’s constitution. Decentralization of this sector is another key value driver.

The prime concern being to deliver justice system closer to people. In the process of ensuring universal access to quality justice 6,000 cases were solved by courts and 4,400 cases were submitted by prosecution services to the courts.

This year from January to September 92 corruption related cases were submitted of which 36.9% were resolved through prosecution or otherwise. The advent of and eventual establishment of the commercial court system became operational in Kigali, Musanze, Huye and Nyarugenge.

In a bid to give the commercial courts capacity eight out of twenty two judges are pursuing master’s degree programs in commercial law from the republic of South Africa (RSA).
Gacaca courts at glance

The Gacaca jurisdictions have been established to support the more formal judicial system in fulfilling the hopes of the population for sustainable reconciliation.

It’s an old Rwandan cultural and traditional judicial system that has stood the test of time and is understood by all Rwandans, and is an inherently just, fair, and transparent system. It has thus been given a legal status.

The 1994 Tutsi genocide left Rwanda with a set of unique problems in the areas of governance and justice, and progress has been made in both national reconciliation and in the trial of genocide suspects.

Over 12,000 Gacaca courts, local community courts rolled out across all districts in 2004 – are now operational and are trying to clear a backlog of genocide cases.

Legal and institutional reforms

Legal policy reforms have been and are being undertaken to include organizational values underpinning the core transparency and accountability principles that are central if the country’s goals of entrenching good governance are to be realized.

Along with legal reforms, there have been a number of institutional reforms aimed at ensuring the delivery of a better justice system.

The recent sweeping public service reforms aimed at making the civil service more of a ‘meritocracy’ is applicable to the justice sector.

In addition, a performance appraisal tool has been introduced in all government institutions to enhance performance standards within public service.

Other plans include providing human rights training to all police officers, to cover issues of torture, sexual and gender-based violence and children’s rights.

The Government acknowledges that transparency within a democratic society which is free of corruption and accountable to the whole population is a challenging task, but a pre-requisite to successful poverty alleviation programmes.

To achieve this, the government has put in place various oversight institutions to ensure the checks and balances are kept alive within the justice system.

The office of the Ombudsman was created in 2004 while the Office of the Inspector General of Government has continued to be strengthened.

Other institutions whose role it is to enforce transparency and accountability in both the public and private sectors including the Auditor General’s Office, NTB, and RRA among others.

Rwanda has plans to give capacity to the institute of law and practice development (LPD), which has been mandated to give the legal profession training.

Among other legal reforms under the EDPRS the ministry is currently streamlining legal aid provision by mapping legal aid providers and identifying their areas of interventions.

The draft bill of the company’s act has received a cabinet approval while harmonization of the translations has been completed by the ministry of justice. 

Other existing fiscal and commercial bills such as the bill on insolvency as well as those relating to competition and consumer protection are still under discussion and validation process in under way.

Other vital legal redresses still in pipeline are the establishment of law reform commission and the bill for its establishment was sent to cabinet for review and approval.

Reconciliation

Genocide in Rwanda was not a haphazard incident. It was the consequence of divisive ethnic based ideologies that were institutionalized by successive regimes.

The major challenge of a deeply genocide affected society has been to reconcile a people whose fundamental values had been torn apart. 

The national reconciliation commission is operational and continues to undertake activities to re-build Rwanda’s social capital.

An appeal was made to reactivate old sentiments and virtues of friendship, community belonging and solidarity, banning of all forms of exclusion.

This would then help the re-foundation of inclusive and integration of a cohesive national identity. Solidarity camps (Ingando) were re-introduced by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission as a tool to build co-existence in communities by working predominantly with the country’s youth. 

Each district houses one NURC residential training centre for 3-400 students and spends three weeks or two months focusing on five central themes including analysis of Rwanda’s challenges.

Every year, 3,000 pre-university students pass through the ingando. It also receives groups of ex-combatants and has developed curricula for primary and secondary schools for this national undertaking.

In 2003, more than 20,000 confessed genocide perpetrators passed through Ingando before being provisionally released into their home areas, and subsequently going through the Gacaca process.

The National Ingando Centre at Nkumba, North Province accommodates 900 residents in a state- of-the-art training facility which also serves as the Peace Centre for the whole country.

In a related development, ingando has been mainstreamed into the national psyche and is regularly held throughout the country, and have gathered more than 28,000 people from all walks of life, including demobilized soldiers, Government officials, students, released prisoners, former infiltrators, local defense units, and women and youth committees.

Forging ahead

The capacities of the core institutions of the formal justice system – including the Judiciary, National Public Prosecution Authority and Rwanda National Police will continue to be built to provide a robust and sustainable framework for justice and law and order in the country.

Around 1545 mediators (abunzi) committees were established country-wide to provide community level arbitration for disputes, particularly land-related conflicts.

In the EDPRS period Genocide ideology to be fought tiressly and reconciliation mechanisms reinforced and safety of those participating secured.

Plans are also underway to finalise Gacaca genocide cases by end June 2010.The sector plans the completion of TIG work camps by 85% of genocide convicts by the same timeframe.

All these measures are expected to yield high levels of trust and reconciliation among the citizens. Today, the issue is how to promote good governance for the express purpose of tackling poverty.

Decentralized system of justice

It is one of the prime duties of the state to provide accessible justice for its citizens. Advances in the decentralization process promises to enhance good governance in Rwanda through emphasizing the need for local autonomy, collective action, and bottom-up decision making. Access to justice bureaus is now operational in areas of Rusizi, Rwamagana, Karongi and Kinihira.

The mandate of these bureaus is to improve impact and effectiveness of legal aid by coordinating initiatives at local levels while serving as the first point of orientation for the general public.

The role of mediators (Abunzi)

Rwanda has 2,150 Cells across the Country within 30 Districts and a total of 32,400 Abunzi committee members. Abunzi are volunteers and their services are rendered for free.

In order to create an incentive the ministry pays the cost of Abunzi’s families’ health insurance (Mutuelle), worth rwf 5,000 per family per year.

The ministry also supplies one bicycle per cell to help mediators access all parts of their jurisdiction.

Abunzi Committee members are elected for two years but can be re-elected. The system is designed to give all members of the community an opportunity to serve on the Abunzi committee.

Each Committee comprises twelve members plus three substitute members. Abunzi elections take place every two years. The intended meaning behind mediators is to settle local disputes without referring such to the formal courts.

Abunzi also offers a clear understanding of the legal rights and responsibilities of the aggrieved parties as well as facilitating fair dispute resolution mechanism at the local levels.

The government’s major initiative to decentralise the justice system and to provide advice and support at the community level, is existent through the establishment of Maisons d’Accès à la Justice/ Access to Justice Office (MAJ) in every district throughout the country.

Safety, law and order maintained

Reports from Justice Ministry asserts that the Rwanda National Police (RNP) has earned the widespread respect of the Rwandan community, with over 85% questioned expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the services rendered by the force. However according to international norms the force is still small, with a police to population ratio of about 1:1,600.

In Rwanda security is maintained by the 90,000 local defence volunteers operating within the local communities. They are funded through MINALOC and are under the operational control of the RNP and the local mayor.

The Joint Governance Assessment notes that abuses by members of the Local Defence Forces have diminished ever since they were brought under control of the Police in 2004.

On the other hand, the ratio of local defence force persons to population is extremely high at approximately 1:100. It is important that this large and highly decentralized force of volunteers is subject to effective and professional supervision by RNP, with appropriate regulatory controls.

Therefore the government acknowledges the challenge of developing such a localized institutions and is thus bent on making sure that they are operating in a framework and environment that permits their coordination especially in terms of analysis, formulation, decision, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of its operations and policies.

Boosting community policing initiiavites

Community policing is a collaborative approach to maintaining law and order which involves establishing partnerships with the local community by enabling the police to act responsively to community needs.

The RNP is progressively institutionalizing this approach to policing, including setting up Community Policing Committees, Anti Crime Clubs and community based crime prevention measures.

The RNP aims to reduce the incidence of all crime, but its approach, as set out in its Strategic Plan is to focus its operations each year on priority crimes, identified from the result obtained from their incidences as well as their impacts on the community.

The RNP also seeks to improve its management of firearms through measures such as public awareness campaigns, improved firearms record keeping and stockpile management, and effective management of firearm licensing.

In order to minimize road traffic accidents, the RNP will improve its traffic records system as well as its mechanisms for issuing drivers’ licenses and its ability to conduct vehicle inspections for road worthiness. It will also enhance its capacity to investigate road accidents.

Conclusion

Rwanda has a vision to become a modern, united and prosperous nation founded on the positive values of its culture. The country is open to the world, including its own Diaspora.

Rwandans will be a people sharing the same vision for the future and ready to contribute to social cohesion, equity and equality of opportunities.

Ends