EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2023 Country Updates

Republic of Rwanda

1. Overview of the human rights and democracy situation: The human rights and democracy situation in Rwanda remained challenging. Rwanda continued to perform well on social and economic indicators, in particular on health, education, access to water and electricity, thanks to increased social spending over the past years. Rwanda also performed well on the fight against corruption. The Government continued to face allegations of serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions and use of inhuman or degrading treatments in detention facilities. In 2023, there were fewer reports of extrajudicial killings and unexplained disappearances. Freedom of expression remained limited: charges for inciting insurrection, spreading rumours or false information, genocide minimization, and others, stifled public dissent or criticism. Journalists, bloggers and citizens engaged in self-censorship for fear of consequences. Freedom of association continued to suffer from burdensome and often discretionary registration processes. While the legal framework addressing women’s rights in Rwanda is generally positive, the weak implementation of laws and policies coupled with discriminatory social norms remained a challenge, especially in rural areas. Rwanda is the only country in East Africa that does not criminalize consensual same-sex relations, but has no provisions to protect LGBTI individuals from discrimination. Rwanda hosted around 135 000 refugees from DRC and Burundi, who enjoyed the right to work, move and settle freely. It continued to host an Emergency Transit Mechanism for the evacuation and processing of asylum-seekers from Libya pending resettlement, with a capacity of around 700 persons at a time.

2. EU action - key focus areas: The EU focused on six areas: (1) non-discrimination and protection of marginalised groups; (2) women’s rights and the elimination of violence against women; (3) access to food and the fight against child malnutrition; (4) freedom of expression, regulation and capacity-building in the media sector; (5) freedom of association and promoting an enabling environment for civil society and citizen participation; (6) respect for human rights in the justice system (including countering arbitrary detentions, torture and enforced disappearances).

3. EU bilateral political engagement: The EU continued to engage on human rights and democracy within the framework of regular political exchanges (including the political dialogue), sectoral dialogues and public diplomacy. The EU and Rwanda addressed the situation in prisons, allegations of torture, Rwanda’s human rights action plan, and mainstreaming human rights in Rwanda’s next National Transformation Strategy. The EU and Member States conducted a number of joint advocacy campaigns, e.g. marking IDAHOBIT day and raising awareness across the country on SGBV. The EU carried out formal demarches on human rights and democracy issues to request support for its initiatives in UN fora.

4. EU financial engagement: The EU supported several actions in line with the above priority areas, for a total amount of EUR 17 million. Among these, EUR 580 000 to support Rwanda’s civil society and legal defender community and national institutions to eradicate torture and arbitrary detention. In late 2023 the EU signed nine new projects with CSOs with approx. EUR 135 3.4 million for disability, primarily focusing on youth with mental and intellectual disabilities; two projects for approx. EUR 500 000 aimed at fighting sexual and gender based violence and combating teenage pregnancies at community level and two projects totalling over EUR 1 million aimed at promoting labour rights and decent work, especially in the mining sector. Fourteen new projects worth EUR 10 million kicked off in 2023 under the ‘Kungahara’ programme, aiming to increase food security as a response to increased inflation. Two new projects signed in 2023 for EUR 1 million, aimed to promote responsible freedom of expression online, e.g. through enhanced digital literacy of citizens and media practitioners alike. The EU supported the National Commission for Human Rights to bolster its mandate as the National Preventative Mechanism against Torture, as well as to work on the UPR.

5. Multilateral context: Rwanda is party to all key UN Human Rights Conventions, with the exception of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Statute of the International Criminal Court and most optional protocols. Rwanda was overall aligned with the EU’s priorities on human rights in UN fora.