New judicial defenders boost justice system

Seventeen new judicial defenders were sworn in at the Kigali Court of First Instance on Friday, thereby becoming entitled to advise clients and plead before all first-instance courts in Rwanda, according to a press release from the Danish Centre for Human Rights. Fourteen of the group were the first batch of a group of 87 due to graduate within a matter of weeks from a six-month legal training programme by the Rwandan Ministry of Justice and Danish Centre for Human Rights, supported by several foreign donors.

The graduations represent “a significant increase in Rwanda’s capacity to provide much-needed legal advice and representation, especially in the context of the genocide trials,” the statement said. The judicial defender candidates - based in Cyangugu, Gikongoro, Gisenyi, Ruhengeri and Kigali - have reached over 60,000 people since April with an intensive information campaign that will form the basis for their future work of representing civil claimants and suspects, the statement added.