Rwanda Should Conduct Comprehensive Investigation into Torture in Its Prisons
By Human Rights Watch
Published December 17, 2024
For decades, Rwandan authorities have subjected detainees in detention facilities to ill-treatment and torture, with no accountability but a landmark trial of 6 prison officials and 12 detainees for murder, torture and assault at Rubavu prison, concluded in April 2024, shows that it is possible to begin to break through the entrenched practice of torture.
Human Rights Watch, in a 22-page report titled They Threw Me in the Water and Beat Me: The Need for Accountability for Torture in Rwanda, documents torture and ill-treatment by prison officials and detainees in Nyarugenge prison in the capital, Kigali; in Rubavu prison, western Rwanda; and in an unofficial detention facility in Kigali known as “Kwa Gacinya” and that judges ignored complaints from current and former detainees about the unlawful detention and ill-treatment, creating an environment of near-total impunity.
“Our research demonstrates that prison officials have been allowed to torture detainees with impunity for years, highlighting the failures of Rwanda’s institutions mandated to safeguard detainees’ rights,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The landmark trial of prison officials provides an important first step toward accountability, but a more comprehensive response is necessary to address the deeply entrenched practice of torture in Rwanda.”
Rwanda’s National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) is not independent and has been unable or unwilling to report on cases of torture.
Rwandan authorities routinely curtail the work of institutions with a mandate to monitor prison conditions and prevent torture. At the international level, the Rwandan government has obstructed the United Nations and other institutions from carrying out essential monitoring work in an independent manner.
Rwanda should comply with its own constitution and fulfill its obligations under international human rights law, in particular the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Rwanda’s partners, particularly those that support Rwanda’s justice sector such as the European Union, should press Rwanda’s government to intensify efforts to hold all those responsible for torture accountable.
The government should conduct a comprehensive investigation into torture in Rwanda’s prisons. To lend credibility to the investigation, the government should request the assistance of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and UN experts and publicly report on its findings. Finally, Rwanda should cooperate with the UN Committee against Torture and submit its state party report, due since December 2021, and permit the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to resume its visit to detention facilities unhindered.
