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V.Government Response

National and local authorities in Rwanda have professed their commitment to the investigation and prosecution of genocide and post-genocide sexual violence. Many government officials we interviewed were receptive to the particular circumstances and needs of women and girls who were raped during and since the genocide. Since 1998, the government and several NGOs have joined forces in a nationwidecampaign against sexual violence. Key aspects of the campaign have included community sensitization programs,¹⁷⁰ police training, and the adoption in 2001 of the Law Relating to Rights and Protection of the Child against Violence (Child Protection Law), which criminalizes child rape. However, despite government steps to improve legal procedures with respect to sexual violence cases, serious obstacles to accountability persist, in the form of significant legal gaps and programmatic deficiencies in witness protection, investigations, and prosecutions.

Statutory Law

As discussed earlier, gaps in the Penal Code hinder effective and uniform investigation and prosecution of genocide and post-genocide sexual violence cases. Human Rights Watch’s review of genocide judgments found that different courts characterize similar acts of sexual violence variously as rape or sexual torture. While the 2001 and 2004 Gacaca Laws have set a uniform penalty for rape and sexual torture, Human Rights Watch believes that the lack of a statutory definition for either term raises both substantive and due process concerns. Thus, absent a clear definition, Rwandan courts may not consider certain violent acts to be rape or sexual torture even though such acts would constitute sexual violence under international law.¹⁷¹ Further, judges within one Tribunal of First Instance and across the provincial court system may reach different verdicts with respect to similar acts of sexual violence.

With respect to post-genocide rape cases, it is significant that a senior government official as well as a prominent women’s rights activist Human Rights Watch interviewed both confused the Penal Code with the Child Protection Law, believing that the 2001 law’s definition of rape applies to victims of all ages.¹⁷² Human Rights Watch is concerned that, absent a clear definition in the Penal Code that enumerates the legal elements of rape, police officers and assistant prosecutors cannot properly question or elicit necessary information from complainants, the accused, or other witnesses.

The 2001 Child Protection Law is one component of a larger government and NGO campaign against sexual violence since 1998, with a primary focus on sexual abuse of children.¹⁷³  Government officials we interviewed were sensitive to and committed to the issue of child rape. However, at least one provision of the Child Protection Law requires amendment. Article 37 fails to define the “dehumanizing crime” that it prohibits.¹⁷⁴

Training and Resources for Effective Investigation, Prosecution, and Protection

Insufficient resources and inadequate training of judicial and medical personnel present further obstacles to effective investigation, prosecution, and protection of rape victims. Areas of particular concern include: technology and training of medical professionals for the provision of medicolegal services to rape victims, and training of prosecutors and judges in the use of medicolegal evidence and prosecution and adjudication of sexual violence cases.

Medicolegal Training

A critical weakness of current sexual violence investigations is inadequate medicolegal training of medical personnel and facilities for the collection of evidence to establish nonconsensual sexual relations. In 2002, the Rwanda chapter of Forum of Activists against Torture (FACT) provided a four-day training to forty-two medical doctors in communication with sexual violence victims, rape exams, and Rwandan law on sexual violence.¹⁷⁵ Similar, more intensive training in this area, particularly on the application of a standard protocol, is required in hospitals, community health centers, prosecutors’ offices, and courts across Rwanda.

Progress in Police Training

The Rwanda National Police (RNP) has devoted considerable effort to improving its capacity to address sexual violence cases. National and local police and NGOs reported that such cases are given priority and transferred rapidly to prosecutors’ offices.¹⁷⁶ The deputy police commissioner told Human Rights Watch, “We have also sensitized policemen and women to understand the seriousness of the problem and give it the due attention it deserves.”¹⁷⁷ In particular, police and medical personnel Human Rights Watch interviewed were well aware of the need to coordinate their efforts in order to collect and preserve medical evidence in rape cases. An RNP representative told us that in their contact with actual complainants or in the context of community sensitization campaigns, police officers encourage rape victims immediately to visit the nearest health clinic.¹⁷⁸ Hospital personnel in one district hospital further explained to Human Rights Watch that they immediately examine a rape victim who first seeks medical help and then encourage her to report the case to the police.¹⁷⁹ The examination, which is free of charge for rape victims, includes gathering of medicolegal evidence and voluntary HIV counseling and testing.¹⁸⁰ However, victims are obligated to pay out of pocket for post-rape medical and psychological assistance.

The RNP’s 2004-2008 strategic plan includes: campaigns to raise awareness of sexual violence; full implementation of the Child and Family Protection Unit, described below; implementation of a training program on sexual and gender-based violence; preparation of a training manual on sexual and gender-based violence; measures to enhance the collection of forensic medical evidence; and improvement of victim and witness protection in gacaca courts.¹⁸¹

In 2002, the Rwanda field office of the International Rescue Committee (IRC-Rwanda) and FACT, a Rwandan NGO, held a training session for police commanders, officers, and cadets in sexual and gender-based violence crimes. ¹⁸²  The government-sponsored program trained 34 percent of the police force as well as “trainers” for the benefit of the remainder of the force.¹⁸³ The training addressed communication with rape victims and witnesses, investigations, confidentiality, and interaction with health care providers, gacaca courts, and other institutions with respect to sexual violence victims. The deputy commissioner of police noted that since the training there has been increased reporting of sexual violence and improved relations with the female population.¹⁸⁴ 

In 2002, the RNP established the Child and Family Protection Unit, with jurisdiction over sexual and gender-based violence against men, women, and children.¹⁸⁵ As of mid-2004, the unit was based at headquarters in Kigali and had a staff of eight persons. At the time of Human Rights Watch interviews with RNP representatives, the office still lacked transportation and other material resources necessary to conduct field investigations of sexual violence cases. The RNP strategic plan includes funding to equip the unit and establish local offices at the community level. Local police stations are similarly in need of resources, particularly means of transport, to conduct on-site investigations.¹⁸⁶

Training of Prosecutors and Judges

Human Rights Watch is concerned that the lack of training of prosecutors and judges in the area of sexual violence ten years after the genocide may compromise the prosecution and punishment of sexual violence offenders. Prosecutorial personnel and judges presiding over the Tribunals of First Instance have not received instruction in techniques for communicating with rape victims and prosecuting and adjudicating rape cases.¹⁸⁷ In particular, prosecutors and judges require training in the incidence, investigation, and prosecution of sexual violence against adults, including marital and acquaintance rape.

One provincial prosecutor reported that only two out of nineteen assistant prosecutors in his office had received a one-week course of training on sexual violence.¹⁸⁸  Another prosecutor stated that her staff was not specially trained to handle sexual assault cases.¹⁸⁹ A representative of the Ministry of Justice reported that the training curriculum for prosecutorial staff is being revised to include instruction on sexual violence.¹⁹⁰

Past judicial training programs have been limited to gacaca judges and, with the exception of some small-scale initiatives, have focused on basic gacaca procedure, without specific attention to sexual violence crimes. In April and May 2002, national gacaca authorities organized the training of 254,152 gacaca judges by 781 “trainers” in such areas as the gacaca law, dispute resolution, judicial ethics, management of trauma, and logistical matters.¹⁹¹ Gacaca judges received only six days of training.¹⁹² Legal experts noted programmatic weaknesses in the training, particularly that different trainers were given inconsistent instructions on how to define genocide crimes under the gacaca law. A joint program by IRC-Rwanda and the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) in March 2002 trained higher-level gacaca judges in sexual and gender-based violence training but could not reach the more than 150,000 cell-level gacaca judges due to resource and logistical constraints.¹⁹³ IRC-Rwanda has planned a similar training initiative for gacaca judges, to be held in 2004.¹⁹⁴

Counseling and Legal Education Services for Victims

Human Rights Watch interviews with women raped during and since the genocide indicate that many are traumatized by the abuse and ill-informed about their legal rights. While the Ministry of Health and NGOs have provided limited on-site counseling for gacaca participants, there are insufficient counselors to meet the needs of victims and witnesses, especially in rural areas. ¹⁹⁵ Genocide survivors we interviewed were particularly anxious that the gacaca process will reopen wounds. B.R., a genocide survivor and victim of sexual violence, told Human Rights Watch, “I think that gacaca will ruin everything this time. It will traumatize everyone, drive us mad.”¹⁹⁶ V.B. also spoke of attacks against gacaca witnesses, direct threats against her by a released detainee, and the likelihood of retraumatization: “When gacaca begins, it will seriously disturb the survivors. They don’t have hope, or security. Now that people have begun to talk about gacaca, the security situation has changed.”¹⁹⁷

Rape victims also lack information about the legal process. Among women raped during the genocide whom Human Rights Watch interviewed, only one who had previously testified or planned to testify to sexual violence in gacaca courts mentioned the option of in camera testimony, despite the fact that nearly all women interviewed voiced concerns about the public nature of the gacaca process.¹⁹⁸ A few other women stated that before the interview they had been unaware of the possibility of closed-door testimony.¹⁹⁹      

Number of Women Serving as Police, Prosecutors, and Judges

Women are underrepresented among police officers, prosecutors, and judges. Persons who have suffered sexual violence continue to experience trauma for a long period after the assault, and female victims are more willing to confide in other women.²⁰⁰ Increased representation of women in the justice system is therefore essential to enhanced investigation and prosecution of sexual violence crimes. Women officers constitute 4 percent of the Rwanda National Police, in addition to over 100 women officers in training schools and police academies.²⁰¹ In recent years, the Rwanda National Police has vigorously recruited women officers, both through general recruitment and a special recruitment program for women. Damas Gatare, director of the Division Community Policing and Human Rights of the Rwanda National Police, noted that there has been “a very encouraging response from women applicants” to the police force.²⁰² He explained that the police force aims to increase representation of women country-wide in order to provide all female rape victims with the option of reporting to a woman police officer. On March 16, 2004, Prime Minister Bernard Makuza announced that the RNP would aim to raise representation of women to 30 percent, at minimum, as part of its 2004-2008 strategic plan.²⁰³

By contrast, the scarcity of women among prosecutors and judges has not benefited from sustained attention. Only two out of twelve provincial prosecutors, or 16.6 percent, are women.²⁰⁴ There are no women among judicial personnel in the office of the attorney general.²⁰⁵ The prosecutor for the city of Kigali estimated women made up approximately 25 percent of the thirty-two assistant prosecutors in his office.²⁰⁶  His attempt to set up a sexual crimes unit in his office had failed due to high staff turnover and insufficient resources to retrain new personnel. There are also very few women judges. The Tribunal of First Instance in Gisenyi province, for example, lacks a single woman judge, and in Gitarama province, there is one woman among twenty judges.²⁰⁷ In early March, a representative of the Ministry of Justice reported that “[i]n the next two to three months there will be a recruitment drive and strategy to attract women,” with the aim of raising the proportion of women in the justice system to 30 percent.²⁰⁸

Women are better represented in gacaca courts. Government figures estimated that women constituted 36 percent of gacaca judges in pilot courts at the cell level.²⁰⁹ The number of women judges varied in the different pilot gacaca courts, from a minority of judges to, in some localities, a majority of judges.²¹⁰ A gacaca official for the city of Kigali noted that women judges and community members participate more actively in gacaca, particularly in urban areas.²¹¹

Reform of the Gacaca System

Presently, the gacaca system represents the main avenue for legal redress for genocide and related crimes. Even victims of category one crimes, like sexual violence, face the pre-trial gacaca process before their cases are transferred to and adjudicated in the classic courts. The attorney general, Ministry of Justice, minister of gender and family promotion, gacaca officials, and provincial prosecutors have recognized thedeficiencies of the gacaca process with respect to protection of sexual violence victims and witnesses. A revised gacaca law adopted in June 2004 enhances protections for victims of sexual violence in order to facilitate reporting and testimony. Under the new law, a rape or sexual torture victim may choose among three alternatives: testimony before a single gacaca judge of her choosing; testimony in writing; or testimony to a judicial police officer or prosecutorial personnel, to be followed by complete processing of the rape case by the prosecutor’s office.²¹² By providing that gacaca judges will “secretly” transmit rape testimony to public prosecutors, the 2004 law implies, but does not explicitly require, that identifying information of rape victims will be kept confidential. In particular, a gacaca representative told Human Rights Watch that gacaca judges would not be required to read written rape testimony aloud to the gacaca assembly, contrary to existing gacaca regulations for written testimony in general.²¹³ Given this ambiguity, it is essential that the new gacaca law be implemented so as to protect the privacy and confidentiality of rape victims who testify in writing.