An article published by The Telegraph on August 21 shared the tragic story of a young woman who was raped five years ago while on her way home in Kigali. The conclusion drawn was that Rwanda was failing to protect women living with disabilities. As a woman living in Rwanda, this claim came as a surprise. Over the last 29 years, Rwanda has strived unceasingly to protect all women, from all threats to their dignity, personhood, and independence. Therefore, contrary to what the article claims, Rwanda has not disregarded women living with disabilities, or any Rwandan for that matter. The government, in collaboration with several key stakeholders, has implemented several initiatives to protect persons with disabilities from gender-based violence (GBV). Alongside the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Rwanda has established laws aimed at preventing GBV. These laws incorporate special provisions for individuals living with disabilities and other minority groups. For instance, Article 27 of the 2007 law related to the Protection of Persons with disabilities reserves the most severe penalty available under the Criminal Code to any violence committed against a person with a disability. Further, the penal code determines up to 20 years of imprisonment for convicts of rape committed against people living with disabilities. Five more years compared to what perpetrators of rape that is committed against a person without disabilities get. Current records from the National Council of Persons with Disabilities indicate that two cases of GBV on women with disabilities, with superstitions as a motive, have occurred in the past three years. Rwanda believes that even a single case of GBV is unacceptable. What these records do is disprove the claim that myths are the primary cause of assault on people living with disabilities and that the Government of Rwanda has failed to stem these attacks. In Rwanda, rape is treated with the severity it deserves. In 2009, the Government introduced the Isange One Stop Center (IOSC), a holistic approach to combating GBV and providing support to victims and survivors. The services offered at over 40 locations across the country include medical care, psycho-social support, police and legal assistance, and the collection of evidence. Since IOSCs establishment, Rwanda has worked towards improving their services. For instance, when Individuals with hearing and speech disabilities requested that service providers learn sign language to ensure privacy, as they typically required a third party for translation, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) partnered with the National Association of Deaf Women (RNADW) and the National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCDP) in 2022, to provide sign language training for investigators deployed to all districts in the country. Additionally, during the recent Global Disability Summit in 2022, Rwanda committed to making IOSCs accessible to all victims, regardless of disabilities, by allocating a budget to hospitals for necessary accommodations. Furthermore, in partnership with the Rwandan Organization of Women with Disabilities, the IOSC's disability inclusion focal points received training to better cater to the needs of persons living with disabilities. Does this look like a country that is disregarding the plight and needs of persons living with disabilities and preventing GBV? I will leave that to you to decide. While much work remains, the growing disability rights movement is poised to make a difference. These activists are leading awareness campaigns against harmful practices, economically empowering women and girls with disabilities, and advocating on their behalf. This is a collective fight, Rwandans from all walks of life have made it their purpose to protect women and girls. Efforts to undermine and misrepresent this relience and work do more harm than good. Mireille Batamuliza is the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in Rwanda
