Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on decriminalization of homelessness and extreme poverty

This submission focuses on how the Rwanda government, through arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment, punishes and effectively criminalizes many people living in poverty including those from marginalized communities, who experience poverty and homelessness.

Introduction

Since 2006, Human Rights Watch has documented how street vendors, sex workers, homeless people, suspected petty criminals and street children in Rwanda have been arbitrarily detained in so-called ‘transit centers’, where the conditions are appalling and many are badly ill-treated. The government argues[1] that the practice is part of its rehabilitation strategy.[2] 

While “vagrancy” and “begging” were dropped as criminal offences in Rwanda’s 2018 revised Penal Code, legislation adopted in 2017 established a National Rehabilitation Service and introduced the concept of “deviant behaviors,” which include “prostitution, drug use, begging, vagrancy, informal street vending, or any other deviant behavior that is harmful to the public.”[3] These “behaviors” are effectively treated as criminal – those suspected of committing them are arbitrarily arrested and detained in transit or ‘rehabilitation’ centers.[4]

In January 2020, a Human Rights Watch report documented how Gikondo transit center in Kigali is still operating as a de facto detention facility, where children – some as young as 11-years-old – are underfed, beaten, and detained for up to six months in overcrowded and unhygienic rooms, without ever being charged, or seeing a judge, a lawyer, or a guardian.[5] In February 2020, the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child called on Rwanda to stop detaining children in transit centers, to investigate allegations of ill-treatment, and to change the laws that regularize this abuse.[6]

In September 2021, Human Rights Watch published a new report documenting how Rwandan authorities rounded up and arbitrarily detained over a dozen gay and transgender people, sex workers, street children, and others considered “undesirable” in an effort to “clear up” the streets in the months before a planned June 2021 high-profile international conference.[7] Those detained were held at Gikondo transit center, known for its harsh and inhuman conditions, which appear to have deteriorated further due to the increase in the number of detainees held there and the pandemic. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), first scheduled for June 2020 and rescheduled for June 2021, was eventually postponed indefinitely in May.

Background

Gikondo has been used as a detention center since at least 2005. Human Rights Watch’s 2006 report documented the lack of adequate food, water, and medical care, and abuse of children by adult detainees at the center and called for its immediate closure.[8]

For many years, transit centers in Rwanda operated outside of the law. In his letter to Human Rights Watch in November 2014, the then-minister of justice conceded that “unfortunately, because of the manner in which the center was established as an emergency and temporary rehabilitation center, there is currently no legal framework for its administration. This loophole has however been realized and a draft law and policy are in the final stages of development by the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.”[9]

In November 2015, Kigali City Council adopted a new directive on the Kigali Rehabilitation Transit Center—the official name of the Gikondo Transit Center at the time—laying out the center’s objectives and procedures.[10] The directive lists the rights of those taken to the center, including the rights not to be subjected to corporal punishment, harassed, or discriminated against; the right to access to hygiene and health care; and the right to visits.

In 2015 and 2016, the National Commission for Human Rights and members of the Rwandan Parliament also found that transit centers lacked a legal framework and endorsed a recommendation for an updated legal framework for all “transit centers.”[11]

New Legal Framework for Transit Centers and the National Rehabilitation Service: “Deviant behavior” as a basis for criminalization

Many detainees in Gikondo Transit Center are called “vagrants,” “beggars,” or “delinquents,” even though vagrancy and begging were removed as criminal offences[12] from the Penal Code in August 2018.[13] A “delinquent” is someone accused of a misdemeanor, an offense punishable by imprisonment of six months to five years.[14] An offence with a potential for a five year custodial sentence, because of its purpose, character or severity, is considered a criminal offence under international law, irrespective of domestic labels.[15]

While “vagrancy” and “begging” are no longer defined as criminal offences, an April 2018 ministerial order on the mission, organization, and functioning of transit centers reintroduced the terms when defining “deviant behaviors” as “actions or bad behavior such as prostitution, drug use, begging, vagrancy, informal street vending, or any other deviant behavior that is harmful to the public.”[16] In so doing the Rwandan government effectively criminalized anything it deems “deviant behavior that is harmful to the public”.

The order states that a “competent person” can apprehend someone on this basis, that men, women, female and male children should all be placed in separate facilities, and that no one can be held in excess of two months in a transit center.[17]

Irrespective of the label Rwandan authorities give these centers, for the purpose of international human rights law and Rwanda’s obligations thereunder, both transit and rehabilitation centers are places of detention, where persons are deprived of their liberty and their ability to leave the facility is completely controlled by the authorities.

According to the April 2018 order, when police round up individuals accused of exhibiting “deviant behaviors,” they can hand them over to a transit center and record their identity and alleged behavior in a statement. A decision on whether they are to be admitted to a transit center should be reached within 72 hours, from the time they have been transferred to the center. The arrested individual has a right to include their observations in the statement.[18] The order is silent on the due process rights an individual is entitled to during admission. In particular, there is no right to a lawyer.

On December 4, 2020, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights held that laws enabling the detention of people who, often because of poverty, are forced to live on the street, violate human rights law.[19] The opinion concluded that laws permitting the forcible removal or warrantless arrest of a person declared to be a “vagrant,” violate the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other human rights instruments.

Targeting of Children Living on the Streets

Since 2017, as part of a broader strategy to “eradicate delinquency” and address the problem of children living on the streets,[20] the Rwandan government established the National Rehabilitation Service and adopted legislation governing transit centers.[21] The Rwandan government’s July 2018 report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that “Gikondo is not a detention facility but rather a Transit Centre aimed at screening out children from the streets prior to sending them back home or to rehabilitation centres where they are re-educated from deviant behaviours by instilling positive behaviours, and provided with formal education and/or professional skills.”[22]

The then-director of the National Rehabilitation Service announced in a speech in June 2018 that “[i]n two years since today there will be no street children in Rwanda. We request assistance from the Government and the police to take further steps for a special operation to eradicate this problem.”[23]

In a 2019 report, the National Commission for Children presented its strategy to address the situation of children living on the streets. It stated that the police were responsible for removing children from the street and taking them to the district transit center, where they are to be held for no more than seven days, a significantly shorter time than the two months allowed by the ministerial order on transit centers. However, the detentions documented by Human Rights Watch often lasted several weeks or months. Detaining a child without charge and access to a guardian or a lawyer for days, weeks, or months at a time violates Rwanda’s obligation to ensure that children are detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate time.

After a visit to Gikondo in July 2019, the National Commission for Human Rights also raised concerns about the lengthy detentions of children, the failure of the center’s authorities to contact guardians or parents, and the lack of respect for due process.[24]

Arrest and Transfer to Gikondo

Arrest

Both police and members of the District Administration Security Support Organ (DASSO) have the legal authority to detain people.[25] All the former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch between January 2019 and May 2021 said they were rounded up by police or DASSO.

In some cases, children reported being beaten while they were being arrested, particularly if they tried to escape. A 15-year-old boy living on the streets in Nyagatare District, who was arrested one night in September 2018, said, “The police beat me up and tried to force me into the truck. I hurt my wrist, I had to wait three days before seeing a doctor.... They just bandaged my arm.”[26]

When a 15-year-old girl was arrested in April 2019, she was taken to the Muhima police station. The police, according to her, refused to contact her mother and beat her: “The police captain with three stars on his uniform hit me at least 20 times with his police club. He said that as long as we’re in the streets, he’ll keep beating us.”[27]

Almost all interviewees said they were taken to local police stations or sector and cell offices across Kigali, the most common being police stations at Nyabugogo, Nyarugenge, Muhima, and Nyabirambo neigborhoods. They were held for periods ranging from a few hours to one week, sometimes in crowded cells. Some also reported being beaten while in detention at a police station.

A 16-year-old boy who spent six months at Gikondo said he was arrested in March 2019 by DASSO officers:

The DASSO came to arrest 26 of us who were sleeping in the streets. They handcuffed us, and took us to their office in Nyabugogo, where we spent the night. When we asked to call our parents, they hit us.... They didn’t let us see a lawyer, and instead gave me a statement where it said I was a thief. Then, we were all taken to Gikondo.[28]

Some interviewees said they were given an official statement at the police station with the accusation levelled against them, but most said DASSO or police officers never gave them such a document. A 12-year-old child who was detained at Gikondo for two weeks in 2019 told Human Rights Watch he was taken by DASSO officers to the local police station: “We weren’t questioned, and we didn’t see a judge. Police came in a pickup truck and took us to Gikondo. They said, ‘The president doesn’t want children in the streets of Kigali.’”[29]

In some cases, children interviewed said that the police offered to call their parents. A teenage girl told Human Rights Watch that she was beaten at the Nyarugenge police station. The police called her father, but he allegedly refused to collect her, saying she was “too difficult to educate.” She was then transferred to Gikondo. In the majority of cases, children said the police did not contact a family member. None of the children were given access to a lawyer.

Arrival at Gikondo

At Gikondo, many interviewees said Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) or police officers were in charge of registering them. The RIB was created in 2017 as an autonomous specialized body responsible for investigating, gathering evidence, and assisting local law enforcement agencies. [30] According to the ministerial order on transit centers, the “Rwanda Investigation Bureau, the local authorities, the family of a person who has done acts or who exhibits deviants behavior or any interested person may request the Rwanda National Police that a person who has done acts or exhibits deviants behavior be placed in a transit center.”[31]

According to Human Rights Watch’s interviews with former detainees, the procedure for identification and registration upon arrival varied. Some said RIB or police officers interviewed them upon arrival, but many were admitted without undergoing registration.

Beatings upon arrival at Gikondo appear routine. A 14-year-old girl who spent two weeks at Gikondo in April 2019 said, “When we arrived at Gikondo, the police officers in uniform beat us with a whip. They accused me of being a whore.”[32]Girls and women often said they were accused of prostitution. A 16-year-old girl who said she had been detained at Gikondo five times described her latest month-long detention in early 2019:

“When we arrived, RIB agents asked us why we are street children. If you’re a young girl, they call you a whore. They stick whatever label on you, don’t say anything about the law, and when they’re done calling you a prostitute, a thief, or a vagrant, they throw you in prison.”[33]

None of the interviewees reported being given access to a lawyer or a legal guardian during this process of registration, when accusations are levelled against them. A 17-year-old boy who was accused of delinquency said, “I didn’t see a lawyer, they said the police had filled out a statement, but I didn’t see it. The RIB confirmed I was accused of being a ‘delinquent’ and I was taken to the room for petty offenders. No one comes to defend you.”[34]

Conditions at Gikondo

Conditions in Gikondo Transit Center, as Human Rights Watch has extensively documented since 2006, fall well below international standards and violate Rwandan law.

In March 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture called on governments to “reduce prison populations … wherever possible by implementing schemes of early, provisional or temporary release.” Yet Rwandan authorities continued to detain people in Gikondo transit center, without due process or judicial oversight. Overcrowding and poor hygienic and sanitary conditions at Gikondo put people at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 due to close proximity, inability to practice “social distancing,” a lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene, and lack of adequate medical care, including a lack of Covid-19 testing.[35]

During their arrest and transfer to Gikondo, people interviewed said, they were not tested for Covid-19, were not given masks to wear, and were not given the space to maintain distances from other detainees. Many were taken to Gikondo in an overcrowded truck with windows closed. Some said that upon arrival, they washed their hands with water, but were not given soap. One former detainee said hand sanitizer was confiscated by the authorities upon arrival.[36]

Former detainees who were held at Gikondo between 2019 and 2021 estimate that between 50 and 200 girls and boys were detained together at a time in the “children’s room,” in deplorable and degrading conditions. But they described conditions in the room for male “delinquents” – which also holds teenage boys – and facilities for adult women with their infants as far worse.

In those two rooms, some children were held together with adults in severely overcrowded conditions and many detainees were forced to sleep on the concrete floor. Former detainees held in the room for “delinquents” estimated that hundreds of people were held together. One person interviewed said it was not possible to see the floor at night when the detainees attempted to lay down to sleep on the concrete.

Most former detainees said they were given food once a day, in insufficient quantities and with poor nutritional value. Food is particularly insufficient for young children and babies, who regularly get sick. One woman said she was released after her baby got so ill he had blood in his stool, while another said her baby had to be transferred directly to a hospital due to malnutrition.

Detainees in the rooms for women and “delinquents” had irregular access to drinking water, sometimes only once a day. “Sometimes we go an entire day without drinking water, and then they give a tiny amount that we all have to share,” said one interviewee who was held at Gikondo for almost all of April 2021.

Sanitation and hygiene conditions are very poor, and many interviewees reported being allowed to wash at most once a week. One former detainee said: “When it’s time to wash, they take a 20-liter basin and around 20 to 30 people wash at the same time.” Former detainees said they were rarely given soap. The mother of a 3-year-old said: “We only washed once a day with filthy water that had worms in it, mostly without soap … we didn’t change our clothes.”

Beatings often begin as soon as people are rounded up and taken to a nearby police station or post. A 30-year-old woman with a 3-year-old child detained in 2021 said:

“I was taken to the police, where they kept us in a room with others who had been arrested. At that point we were violently beaten. I had a baby with me, but they still beat me, although they didn’t beat him. At 2 a.m. they transferred us to “Kwa Kabuga.” They told me: “Your baby is none of our business. Get in with the others.” I insulted them, so they beat me badly. They said they don’t want me to do this kind of business [on the streets].”

Long-term detainees at Gikondo, known as “counsellors,” are often in charge of daily life in the rooms and beat other detainees. The 30-year-old street vendor said that other detainees in the women’s room beat her and her child: “An adult woman is hit twenty times, whereas her child will be beaten four times. It’s only babies under one year old that are not beaten.”

Interviewees detained in the women’s room also said they were beaten when their child defecated or cried: “We were beaten every day. We were also beaten when we asked for permission to use the toilet. If a baby cried, or urinated, its mother would pay the price,” said the 23-year-old mother of a 2-year-old child, who was detained at Gikondo for three weeks in April 2021.[37]

Three interviewees said that during their time at Gikondo, they saw or heard of detainees who had died due to the poor conditions and lack of appropriate medical care. “In the two weeks I spent [at Gikondo] there were three nights where we couldn’t sleep because there were too many people in the room,” said a 40-year-old street vendor detained at the transit center in April 2021. “Two people died because of this treatment and illnesses…. They were ill and had diarrhea and skin rashes. They were refused permission to see a doctor, and one morning they were found dead. I don’t know what caused their death or what their names are.”

Human Rights Watch requested information on these allegations from the Justice Ministry and the National Rehabilitation Service but received no response and was not able to independently verify them.

Lack of Government Response; Criticism by Regional and International Entities

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reviewed Rwanda’s record on January 27 and 28, 2020, said it was concerned that the reference to “deviant behaviors” in Rwanda’s legislation was leading to “the deprivation of liberty of children in need of protection.” The committee said the abusive detention should end and that the government should change the law.

During the committee’s review, the Rwandan government denied that the detention of street children in transit centers is arbitrary.[38] The government also claimed that children in transit centers are either placed with a family or transferred to a “rehabilitation center” within 72 hours.[39] These claims contradict reports by the National Commission for Children[40] and the National Commission for Human Rights[41], as well as Human Rights Watch findings.

In response to the Human Rights Watch January 2020 report, then-Justice Minister Johnston Busingye was quoted in KT Press saying: “These children have been redeemed…. We believe they can become useful citizens…. HRW [Human Rights Watch] can come and interview them if they wish.”[42] During Rwanda’s review by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the gender and family promotion minister, Soline Nyirahabimana, also said that independent observers should visit the center.

On February 6, 2020, December 14, 2020, and August 23, 2021, Human Rights Watch wrote letters to then-Justice Minister Busingye following up on these statements, requesting access to Gikondo and other transit centers in Rwanda, and asking about steps taken by the Rwanda authorities to remedy the abusive legal framework governing its National Rehabilitation Service. He has not responded.