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An assessment of Rwanda's judicial sector, commissioned by USAID/Rwanda, says although the government has been able to resuscitate an almost moribund legal system much more had to be done to put the rule of law into practice.
In a summary of a study appearing in DEC Express, USAID's bi-weekly bulletin, published on 25 February, the authors of the study said Rwanda's judicial sector had been overburdened with more than 100,000 genocide suspects incarcerated pending trial, and the nation's social fabric had been destroyed and was in need of reconstruction through national reconciliation. Other problems, it said, were the existence of rampant poverty, and an acute lack of government resources.
USAID/Rwanda has produced an 86-page study, finished in November 2002, in response to these challenges and in support of the judiciary. The agency said it requested the study in light of its five-year strategic plan (2004-2009) for supporting the Rwandan judicial system.
"Its objective is to provide a comprehensive inventory of the Rwandan judicial system, and to assess its needs based on perceptions of the system by its officials, players, and intended beneficiaries," the US agency reported.
The study for USAID "Assessment of the Judicial Sector in Rwanda" 
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