Rwanda: Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Rwanda

51st session of the United International locations Universal Periodic Review

Introduction

1. Human Rights Mediate submits the following knowledge relating to Rwanda’s human rights document since its 2021 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), including efforts towards implementation of UPR ideas as effectively as trends in the human rights converse of affairs since then.[1] This submission is now no longer a total overview of all ideas supported by Rwanda, nor a whole overview of Rwanda’s protection of human rights.
2. In 2021, the Rwandan delegation expressed strengthen for 160 out of 284 ideas, including referring to to get hold of admission to to justice and solve, reformatory and detention stipulations, and the rights to freedom of speech and affiliation.[2]
3. On the other hand, there has been small to no progress in these areas brooding about the persistence of severe abuses over the reporting interval.
4. In Rwanda, autonomous media, opposition parties, and civil society members live unable to operate freely. Suspicious deaths and disappearances of right or perceived critics possess long past unpunished whereas each the judiciary and the national human rights commission continue to lack independence.[3] Detainees are held in official and unofficial detention centers, where they had been subjected to sick-therapy and torture in the course of the reporting interval, though a landmark trial of reformatory officials raised hope for accountability.[4]
5. Rwandan authorities possess additionally been implicated in severe abuses outside of Rwanda’s borders. The govt has equipped militia, logistical, and other strengthen to the abusive M23 armed community in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan forces possess performed severe violations of global humanitarian law, including apparent wrestle crimes.[5] Rwandan authorities possess additionally engaged in transnational repression, utilizing a extensive range of ways to target critics of the govt, right or perceived, in a international nation.[6]
6. In May perchance perchance well 2024, Rwandan immigration authorities denied entry to Clémentine de Montjoye, a senior researcher at Human Rights Mediate, upon arrival at Kigali Global Airport, as she traveled to Rwanda for meetings with diplomats. De Montjoye is the fourth Human Rights Mediate researcher to be blocked from entering Rwanda since 2008.[7]
7. Efforts to bring justice for the 1994 genocide continue bigger than 30 years later. Rwandan judicial authorities persisted to compare and prosecute genocide circumstances whereas extra prosecutions of genocide suspects are being performed under the precept of customary jurisdiction in Europe.[8]

Freedom of Association and Expression

1. In the course of the 2021 UPR, Rwandan authorities supported 13 ideas about freedom of expression and get hold of admission to to knowledge, including on the need to construct an enabling and procure atmosphere for journalists and activists, and on repealing provisions limiting free speech.[9] It illustrious another 13, including some explicitly calling for the protection of journalists and activists.[10] The govt failed to implement the authorized ideas.
2. After years of threats, intimidation, suspicious deaths or disappearances, and excessive-profile prosecutions, few autonomous opposition parties or journalists live bright in Rwanda. In the course of the reporting interval, the authorities possess misused the judiciary to silence critics, abusively bringing charges of “spreading false information or harmful propaganda with intent to cause a hostile international opinion against [the] Rwandan Government” in opposition to the political opposition or autonomous media now no longer easy official narratives.[11] This criminal offense is incompatible with Rwanda’s regional and global human rights responsibilities.

Political House and Elections

1. In July 2024, President Paul Kagame obtained his fourth term as president with ninety nine p.c of the vote,[12] further consolidating the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Entrance’s (RPF) political vitality. Admire in 2017, when Kagame additionally obtained by a landslide,[13] authorities cracked down on media and civil society forward of the poll whereas other political parties faced boundaries in contesting the elections.[14]
2. The electoral commission barred Diane Rwigara, the chief of the Folk Salvation Circulate, from working in the election, alleging that she had now no longer submitted the appropriate documentation to strengthen her candidacy.[15] Victoire Ingabire’s unregistered Construction and Liberty for All opposition occasion (often known as Dalfa-Umurinzi) was prevented from contesting the 2024 elections.[16]
3. At the very least 15 members of the Dalfa-Umurinzi occasion, which has faced persisted judicial harassment and abuses for years, are at the second at the attend of bars, including Ingabire. Among them are 7 who had been arrested in October 2021 in relation to “Ingabire Day,” an occasion scheduled for the connected month, and arranged by the occasion to focus on, among other issues, political repression in Rwanda.[17] Their trial started in leisurely 2024. The prosecution essentially essentially essentially based its accusations on the community’s strive to observe an on-line working towards and design a advertising and marketing campaign on peaceful systems of dissent and introduced converse security charges in opposition to them. [18] The authorities arrested Ingabire in June 2025 in relation to the trial.[19]
4. On December 16, 2022, a courtroom sentenced Dalfa-Umurinzi member Théophile Ntirutwa to seven years in reformatory for “spreading false information” following his arrest on May perchance perchance well 11, 2020.[20] Ntirutwa was convicted in accordance to cell telephone calls he made to Ingabire in which he acknowledged that an incident at his store was an assassination strive by security forces in opposition to him. Despite the indisputable fact that the allegations had been spurious, his conviction and vicious sentence violate human rights law. Sharing fraudulent knowledge does now no longer alone constitute legit grounds to criminalize freedom of expression. United International locations consultants sent a letter to the Rwandan authorities to share their concerns on this case in April 2024.[21]
5. Since 2017, 5 members of the Dalfa-Umurinzi occasion possess died or disappeared in suspicious circumstances.[22]
6. In September 2021, Christopher Kayumba was arrested quickly after setting up a fresh political occasion, the Rwandese Platform for Democracy (RPD).[23] He was later acquitted of rape and “sexual misconduct” charges and released in February 2023. On the other hand, in November 2023, Kayumba was convicted on attraction and given a two-300 and sixty five days suspended sentence. Kayumba beforehand claimed that govt officials had threatened to “destroy” him criminally if he didn’t stop his political activities. He additionally denounced the existence of “safe houses,”[24] where detainees are routinely held illegally and tortured.[25]

Media

1. Rwanda failed to implement the ideas referring to to media freedom they had authorized, including to strengthening media pluralism and autonomous media.[26] Whereas some inner most radio stations and YouTube commentators as soon as in a whereas broadcast programs addressing politically soft points,[27] professional-govt views dominate the national media panorama. In the course of the reporting interval, journalists and YouTube commentators had been unjustly prosecuted. Additionally, the neatly-known investigative journalist John Williams Ntwali died in suspicious circumstances.[28]
2. YouTube journalist Dieudonné Niyonsenga, often known as “Cyuma Hassan,” was arrested in April 2020 and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, after reporting on the affect of the Covid-19 ideas on prone populations. He was acquitted and released in March 2021, nevertheless the prosecution appealed the verdict and Niyonsenga was rearrested in November 2021 and is easy in reformatory.[29] In January 2024, he told a Kigali courtroom that he was detained in a “hole” that often fills with water, with out get hold of admission to to light, and that he was overwhelmed recurrently.[30] He acknowledged his listening to and eyesight had been impaired due to his detention in “inhuman” stipulations and beatings.[31]
3. Journalist Théoneste Nsengimana was arrested in October 2021 as fragment of the broader crackdown in opposition to the Dalfa-Umurinzi occasion, after his channel announced its diagram to veil “Ingabire Day.”[32] He has been tried with members of the occasion[33] and is at the second at the attend of bars. Nsengimana’s YouTube channel had hosted soft discussions on most up-to-date affairs in Rwanda in the past. UN consultants sent a letter to the Rwandan authorities to share their concerns on each Niyonsenga and Nsengimana circumstances in April 2024.[34]
4. On May perchance perchance well 31, 2021, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) announced the arrest of YouTube commentator Aimable Karasira for offenses under Rwanda’s genocide ideology law.[35] His arrest followed feedback he made on his YouTube channel now no longer easy the official narratives of occasions surrounding the 1994 genocide.[36] He is at the second in penal advanced whereas his trial is ongoing. Rwandan prison ideas on genocide ideology, that can even had been intended to prevent and punish hate speech of the form that led to the 1994 genocide, possess restricted free speech and imposed strict limits on how americans can focus on the genocide and other occasions of 1994.[37]
5. Yvonne Idamange, a Tutsi on-line commentator and genocide survivor who criticized the Covid-19 lockdown and the govt-organized genocide commemorations, was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in reformatory on September 30, 2021.[38] The prosecution had classified Idamange’s criticism of the monetization of memorial web sites and accusations that genocide survivors are “ignored” as “desecration of a memorial site” and “genocide minimization.”[39] The severity of the charges introduced in opposition to her, the opaque nature of her trial, and the disproportionately harsh sentence seem designed to intimidate anybody thinking of expressing serious views on the govt’s response to the genocide.

Transnational repression

1. Rwandan authorities and their proxies possess deployed a extensive range of ways to target right or perceived critics in a international nation, including asylum seekers and refugees.[40]
2. Human Rights Mediate documented 5 circumstances of suspicious killings that took keep since 2021 in Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa, with many of the victims being outspoken critics of the Rwandan govt.[41] Human Rights Mediate additionally documented circumstances of kidnappings, attempted kidnappings, bodily assaults, and beatings of Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda by Kinyarwanda speakers or americans suspected of working for the Rwandan govt. In some circumstances, the victims had been told they could well be handed over to Rwanda or had been accused of working in opposition to the Rwandan govt.[42]
3. Rwandan authorities possess additionally centered relations of right or perceived critics. The brothers of Noël Zihabamwe, who has been accused in professional-govt media of being an opposition member, had been tortured and later disappeared in September 2019. One of his brother’s sons was additionally tortured.[43] In his September 2022 annual report, the UN Secretary-General highlighted the case of harassment in opposition to Zihabamwe and his relations following his engagement with the UN Working Neighborhood on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances on his brothers’ case.[44]

Rwanda ought to easy:

• Allow autonomous civil society organizations and journalists to operate freely and to compare and publish knowledge on soft topics, including allegations of human rights abuses.
• Allow opposition parties to construct their activities with out intimidation or hindrance; delivery americans prosecuted totally for the peaceful and legit expression of their views.
• Allow global journalists and human rights investigators, including from Human Rights Mediate, to refer to Rwanda and habits their work freely.
• Today end the exercise of systems intended to muzzle and intimidate critics and dissidents in a international nation.
• Habits credible and clear investigations into deaths and disappearances of opposition members, civil society actors, journalists, and Rwandans in a international nation and prosecute perpetrators.

Appropriate to Existence, Liberty, Security, Bodily Integrity, and to a Exciting Trial

1. In 2021, Rwanda didn’t strengthen ideas calling on the nation to ratify the Global Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, amongst other treaties.[45] It indicated that it was “in the process of ascertaining whether all constitutional requirements are in place” for ratification.[46]
2. Whereas accepting some, [47] Rwanda rejected a number of ideas referring to to accomplishing autonomous investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearances, arbitrary and prolonged detentions, extrajudicial executions, and torture and sick-therapy in detention centers. The authorities indicated these incorporated “inaccurate assumptions,” that such violations are “not part of the government’s policy,” and that such crimes had been investigated every time they happen.[48]
3. On the other hand, Human Rights Mediate compare reveals that the govt does now no longer habits credible and effective investigations into most allegations of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and sick-therapy, or prosecute alleged perpetrators. Rwandan authorities persisted to arrest and detain americans in unofficial militia detention centers, where scores of detainees had been tortured in most up-to-date years.

Cases of suspicious deaths and disappearances

1. In February 2021, the 31-300 and sixty five days-venerable singer and poet Innocent Bahati went missing. He was known for reciting his poems, which often centered on social points Rwandans had been facing, in movies posted on YouTube. The RIB acknowledged an investigation into his whereabouts was ongoing, nevertheless findings had been never revealed. Bahati is easy missing to these days.[49]
2. In January 2023, John Williams Ntwali, a leading investigative journalist and editor of the newspaper The Chronicles, died under suspicious circumstances in an alleged avenue accident. Ntwali was often threatened and attacked in the professional-govt media for his investigative reporting, was arrested in January 2016, and had told a buddy seven months prior to his loss of life that he had survived a number of “staged incidents” in Kigali.[50] Rwandan authorities possess failed to habits a credible and clear investigation into Ntwali’s loss of life. As an different, a trial was held with out autonomous observers, where the alleged guilty driver pled guilty and was fined 1,000,000 Rwandan francs (US$920 at the time).[51]

Torture in Detention center

1. In an October 2024 report, Human Rights Mediate documented allegations of torture and other sick-therapy of detainees from 2019 to 2024 in each official and unofficial companies and products. Ragged detainees described the ordeal they faced in Rubavu and Nyarugenge prisons, including being forced into a tank stuffed with dirty water, submerged, and overwhelmed.[52] Human Rights Mediate additionally found out a sample of sick-therapy, mock executions, beatings, and torture at an unofficial penal advanced which dates attend to in spite of the whole lot 2011.[53]
2. Judges routinely ignore complaints from most up-to-date and broken-down detainees about unlawful detention and sick-therapy and the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) has been unable or unwilling to report on circumstances of torture, developing an atmosphere of end to-total impunity.
3. On the other hand, in April 2024, the Rubavu Excessive Court convicted Innocent Kayumba, a broken-down director of Rubavu and Nyarugenge prisons, of the assault and homicide of a detainee at Rubavu reformatory in 2019, and handed him a 15-300 and sixty five days sentence. Two other correctional companies and products officers and 7 prisoners, accused of performing under instruction, had been convicted of beating and killing prisoners. The trial delivered simplest partial justice. Officials had been convicted of assault and homicide, nevertheless acquitted of torture, which carries a heavier penalty. Several senior reformatory officials had been acquitted regardless of curiously damning proof in opposition to them.[54] Kayumba’s conviction was upheld and a senior reformatory official who was at the open acquitted was convicted of beating prisoners on attraction in April 2025.
4. In November 2024, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) deferred the re-accreditation of Rwanda’s NCHR, citing concerns over its failure to acknowledge severe human rights violations, including torture, and publicly report on them.[55] The NCHR’s work does now no longer comply fully with the Paris Principles and the establishment does now no longer fulfil its characteristic as National Preventive Mechanism on torture.[56]

Rwanda ought to easy:

• Habits credible and autonomous investigations into the suspicious deaths of electorate, including political opponents, whether in custody or now no longer, and carry perpetrators to justice.
• Habits credible and autonomous investigations into allegations of torture and other sick-therapy in reformatory custody and carry perpetrators to justice.
• Guarantee that the independence of the NCHR so it conducts credible and clear investigations into alleged human rights violations by converse actors and fulfils its mandate as the national preventive mechanism.
• Ratify the Global Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Conflict-connected abuse in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

1. Rwanda has equipped militia and logistical strengthen to the abusive M23 armed community since its resurgence in November 2021 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including as the community took regulate of Goma and Bukavu, the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu, in 2025. Human Rights Mediate found out that Rwanda’s effective regulate over considerable of eastern Congo through its absorb armed forces and the M23 seems to be to meet the global humanitarian law requirements for a belligerent occupation.[57]
2. From 2021 onward, Rwanda-backed M23 fighters had been guilty for plenty of prison ideas-of-wrestle violations, including summary executions, sexual violence, looting, and forcible transfers of populations.[58] They possess additionally centered critics and journalists.[59] Rwanda’s effective regulate over the M23 makes it indirectly guilty for the armed community’s plenty of abuses in eastern Congo.
3. The Rwandan militia has additionally been at as soon as serious about violations of global humanitarian law in eastern Congo.[60] Human Rights Mediate documented 5 curiously unlawful assaults by Rwandan forces and the M23 since January in which artillery or rocket fire struck displacement camps or populated areas end to Goma. On May perchance perchance well 3, Rwandan or M23 forces launched in spite of the whole lot three rockets into displacement camps spherical Goma, killing in spite of the whole lot 17 civilians, including 15 teenagers.[61]

Rwanda ought to easy:

• Take all mandatory steps to present for the security of civilians in occupied areas, including civil society members and journalists, and make positive that get hold of admission to to humanitarian attend.
• Stop supporting the abusive M23 armed community and committing violations of the prison ideas of wrestle.
• Credibly compare alleged wrestle crimes and other abuses by Rwandan security forces and the M23 community.
• Ratify the Rome Statute of the Global Prison Court, and implement the statute in national legislation, including by incorporating provisions to cooperate promptly and fully with the Global Prison Court.

[1] Extra knowledge on the human rights converse of affairs in Rwanda will even be found out at: https://www.hrw.org/africa/rwanda.

[2] Human Rights Council, Addendum to the File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14/Add.1 (May perchance perchance well 20, 2021), para. 1, https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/47/14/Add.1; Human Rights Council, File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14/ (March 25, 2021), https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/47/14.

[3] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2025 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2025), Rwanda Chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/nation-chapters/rwanda; Human Rights Mediate, World File 2024 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2024), Rwanda Chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[4] “Rwanda: Torture, Ill-Treatment in Detention,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, October 15, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/15/rwanda-torture-sick-therapy-detention.

[5] “DR Congo: M23 Armed Group Forcibly Transferring Civilians,” Human Rights Mediate report, June 18, 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/18/dr-congo-m23-armed-community-forcibly-transferring-civilians; “DR Congo: Rwandan Forces, M23 Rebels Shell Civilians,” Human Rights Mediate report, September 26, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/26/dr-congo-rwandan-forces-m23-rebels-shell-civilians.

[6] Human Rights Mediate, ‘Be a part of Us or Die:’ Rwanda’s Extraterritorial Repression (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2023).

[7] “Rwanda: Human Rigths Watch Researcher Barred,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, May perchance perchance well 16, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/16/rwanda-human-rights-look-researcher-barred.

[8] “Rwanda: Genocide Archives Released,” Human Rights Mediate report, April 2, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/02/rwanda-genocide-archives-released.

[9] Human Rights Council, File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14 (March 25, 2021), ideas 134.49 to 134.62.

[10] Ibid, ideas 135.41 and 136.29 to 136.44.

[11]Examples where the prosecution introduced such charges in opposition to critics are equipped in this submission. Sight to illustrate web page 4.

[12] Shweta Sharma, “Paul Kagame set to win flawed Rwanda election with 99% of vote,” The Just, July 16, 2024, https://www.autonomous.co.uk/news/world/africa/rwanda-election-results-paul-kagame-b2580446.html.

[13] “Rwanda: Politically Closed Elections,” Human Rights Mediate report, August 18, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/18/rwanda-politically-closed-elections

[14] “Rwanda: Respect Rights During Elections,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, June 14, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/06/14/rwanda-appreciate-rights-in the course of-elections.

[15] Ibid.

[16]Ibid.

[17] Ibid;”Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 16, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/16/rwanda-wave-free-speech-prosecutions.

[18] Ibid.

[19] “Rwanda: Opposition Leader Arrested,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, June 24, 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/24/rwanda-opposition-chief-arrested.

[20] “Politician Convicted for Harming Rwanda’s Image,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, January 18, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/18/flesh presser-convicted-harming-rwandas-image.

[21] “Mandates of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” Letter, Ref.: AL RWA 1/2024, April 3, 2024, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28841.

[22] “Rwanda: Respect Rights During Elections,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, June 14, 2024; Human Rights Mediate World File: Rwanda, Events of 2020, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/nation-chapters/rwanda; Lewis Mudge, “Another Mysterious Opposition Death in Rwanda,” Human Rights Mediate dispatch, March 12, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/12/another-mysterious-opposition-loss of life-rwanda.

[23] “Rwanda: Respect Rights During Elections,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, June 14, 2024.

[24] Human Rights Mediate has documented the existence of such “safe houses.” Sight Human Rights Mediate, ‘We Will Force You To Confess’: Torture and Unlawful Armed forces Detention in Rwanda (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2017), https://www.hrw.org/web sites/default/recordsdata/report_pdf/rwanda1017_web2_0.pdf

[25] Ibid; Human Rights Mediate World File: Rwanda, Events of 2023, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[26] Human Rights Council, File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14 (March 25, 2021), ideas 134.50 and 134.51.

[27] “Rwanda: Arrests, Prosecutions over YouTube Posts,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 30, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/30/rwanda-arrests-prosecutions-over-youtube-posts.

[28] “Rwanda: End Abuses Against Journalists,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, January 18, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/18/rwanda-end-abuses-in opposition to-journalists; “Rwanda: Ensure Independent Investigation into John Williams Ntwali’s Death,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, January 31, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/31/rwanda-be sure that-autonomous-investigation-john-williams-ntwalis-loss of life; “Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 16, 2022; “Rwanda: Arrests, Prosecutions over YouTube Posts,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 30, 2021.

[29] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2022 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2022), Rwanda chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[30] “Rwanda: End Abuses Against Journalists,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, January 18, 2024.

[31] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2025 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2025), Rwanda chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[32] “Rwanda: Crackdown on Opposition, Media Intensifies,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, October 19, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/19/rwanda-crackdown-opposition-media-intensifies.

[33] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2024 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2024), Rwanda chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[34] “Mandates of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” Letter, Ref.: AL RWA 1/2024, April 3, 2024.

[35] In the course of Rwanda’s 2021 UPR, Rwanda illustrious the following suggestion: “Amend article 96 of the Penal Code regarding incitement to genocide to bring it into line with international standards on freedom of expression.” Human Rights Council, File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14 (March 25, 2021), suggestion 135.40; “Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 16, 2022.

[36] Ibid; “Rwanda: Crackdown on Opposition, Media Intensifies,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, October 19, 2021.

[37] “Rwanda: Genocide Archives Released,” Human Rights Mediate report, April 2, 2024.

[38] Ibid. “Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 16, 2022.

[39] “Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, March 16, 2022.

[40] Human Rights Mediate, ‘Be a part of Us or Die:’ Rwanda’s Extraterritorial Repression (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2023); “Rwanda: Global Playbook of Abuse to Silence Critics,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, October 10, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/10/rwanda-global-playbook-abuse-silence-critics.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Ibid.

[44] UN Secretary-General’s Review, “Report of the Secretary-General: Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights,” A/HRC/51/47, September 14, 2022, https://www.ohchr.org/en/paperwork/thematic-experiences/ahrc5147-cooperation-united-nations-its-representatives-andmechanisms (accessed September 26, 2023).

[45] Human Rights Council, Addendum to the File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14/Add.1 (May perchance perchance well 20, 2021), ideas 135.1-135.19,

[46] Ibid, para I.4.

[47] Human Rights Council, File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14/ (March 25, 2021), ideas 134.31 and 134.27,

[48] Ibid, ideas 135.33-135.37, 135.44, 135.forty five, 136.20, and 136.23; Human Rights Council, Addendum to the File of the Working Neighborhood on the Universal Periodic Review: Rwanda, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/47/14/Add.1 (May perchance perchance well 20, 2021).

[49] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2022 (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2022), Rwanda chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/nation-chapters/rwanda.

[50] “Rwanda: Suspicious Death of Investigative Journalist,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, January 20, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/20/rwanda-suspicious-loss of life-investigative-journalist.

[51] Lewis Mudge, “No Clarity Over Journalist’s Death in Rwanda,” commentary, Human Rights Mediate dispatch, February 9, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/09/no-readability-over-journalists-loss of life-rwanda.

[52] Human Rights Mediate, “They Threw Me in the Water and Beat Me”: The Want for Accountability for Torture in Rwanda (Current York: Human Rights Mediate, 2024), https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/10/15/they-threw-me-water-and-beat-me/need-accountability-torture-rwanda.

[53] Ibid.

[54] Ibid; “Rwanda: Torture, Ill-Treatment in Detention,” Human Rights Mediate news delivery, October 15, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/15/rwanda-torture-sick-therapy-detention.

[55] Human Rights Mediate, World File 2025, Rwanda chapter.

[56] Human Rights Mediate Submission to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions on Rwanda, September 30, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/30/submission-global-alliance-national-human-rights-establishments-ganhri.

[57] “DR Congo: M23 Armed Group Forcibly Transferring Civilians,” Human Rights Mediate report, June 18, 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/18/dr-congo-m23-armed-community-forcibly-transferring-civilians.

[58] “DR Congo: Rwanda-backed M23 Executed Civilians in Goma,” Human Rights Mediate report, June 3, 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/03/dr-congo-rwanda-backed-m23-finished-civilians-goma; “DR Congo: Killings, Rapes by Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels,” Human Rights Mediate report, June 13, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/13/dr-congo-killings-rapes-rwanda-backed-m23-rebels; “DR Congo: Atrocities by Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels,” Human Rights Mediate report, February 6, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/06/dr-congo-atrocities-rwanda-backed-m23-rebels.

[59] “DR Congo: Rwanda-Backed M23 Target Journalists, Activists,” Human Rights Mediate report, March 12, 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/12/dr-congo-rwanda-backed-m23-target-journalists-activists.

[60] “DR Congo: Rwandan Forces, M23 Rebels Shell Civilians,” Human Rights Mediate report, September 26, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/26/dr-congo-rwandan-forces-m23-rebels-shell-civilians.

[61] Ibid. Human Rights Mediate, World File 2025, Rwanda chapter.