Reports

“As Long as We Live on the Streets, They Will Beat Us”

Rwanda’s Abusive Detention of Children

This report documents the arbitrary detention of street children for periods of up to six months at Gikondo Transit Center, in Kigali, the capital. It follows three Human Rights Watch reports in 2006, 2015, and 2016 on transit centers, including Gikondo, where ill-treatment and beatings are common. Since 2017, a new legal framework and policies under the government’s strategy to “eradicate delinquency” have sought to legitimize and regulate detention in so-called transit centers. But in reality, this new legislation provides cover for the continuing arbitrary detention of, and violations against, detainees, including children.

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  • “We Will Force You to Confess”

    Torture and Unlawful Military Detention in Rwanda

    This report documents unlawful detention in military camps and widespread and systematic torture by the military.

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    Cover for Rwanda Report

  • “All Thieves Must Be Killed”

    Extrajudicial Executions in Western Rwanda

    This report details how military, police and auxiliary security units, sometimes with the assistance of local civilian authorities, apprehended suspected petty offenders and summarily executed them. Two men were killed by civilians after local authorities encouraged residents to kill thieves.

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    Cover of the Rwanda Report

  • “Why Not Call This Place a Prison?”

    Unlawful Detention and Ill-Treatment in Rwanda’s Gikondo Transit Center

    This 48-page report documents prolonged and unlawful detention in the center, in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, between 2011 and 2015.

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  • Justice Compromised

    The Legacy of Rwanda’s Community-Based Gacaca Courts

    This report assesses the courts’ achievements and outlines a number of serious shortcomings in their work, including corruption and procedural irregularities.

  • Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

    A Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

    This 500-page book is oriented to practitioners, nongovernmental organizations, and academics working in the field of human rights. It will also be a tool for staff at institutions established to try such crimes, such as the International Criminal Court, as well as domestic judiciaries, Human Rights Watch said.

  • Law and Reality

    Progress in Judicial Reform in Rwanda

    This 113-page report examines changes to the judicial system adopted over the past four years.

  • “There Will Be No Trial”

    Police Killings of Detainees and the Imposition of Collective Punishments

    Deaths in police custody have increased in Rwanda, where officers of the National Police have killed at least 20 detainees since November 2006. This 37-page report is based on dozens of interviews with families of victims, eyewitnesses and others.

  • Killings in Eastern Rwanda

    This 20-page report documents two incidents in late November 2006 in which 13 persons were killed. On November 19, genocide survivor Frederic Murasira was killed in the commercial center of Mugatwa in eastern Rwanda.

  • Swept Away

    Street Children Illegally Detained in Kigali, Rwanda

    This paper documents life at the unofficial detention center in the Gikondo neighborhood of the Rwandan capital Kigali.

  • The Rwandan Genocide

    How It Was Prepared

    The briefing paper draws on previously unpublished documents to lay out the way the extermination system was planned in the months before the genocide was launched, 12 years ago this week.

  • Struggling to Survive

    Barriers to Justice for Rape Victims in Rwanda

    This 58-page report investigates the persistent weaknesses in the Rwandan legal system that hamper the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence. The report also documents the desperate health and economic situation of rape survivors. Many of the women who were raped became infected with HIV.

  • D.R. Congo: War Crimes in Bukavu

    Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, June 2004

    Since the establishment of the Government of National Unity in Kinshasa in June 2003, peace has eluded eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly in Bukavu and the wider Kivu region, Ituri and Northern Katanga.

  • Rwanda: Lessons Learned

    Ten Years After the Genocide

    In the ten years since the Rwandan genocide, leaders of national governments and international institutions have acknowledged the shame of having failed to stop the slaughter of the Tutsi population.