Legal Aid In Rwanda

The aim of this report isto describe the availability of legal services free of charge in Rwanda, in law and in practice. The focus is on all cases, genocide cases as well as ordinary criminal and civil cases, known together as “droit commun” in Rwanda. The report will moreover briefly outline some legal aid models from other countries, examining how cost efficient ways to improve access to justice applied in other countries could fit into a Rwandan context, including the introduction of a coherent legal aid system.

The report was commissioned by the Danish Institute (Danish Centre) for Human Rights (DCHR), which has since 1998 been managing a legal aid programme in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Relations and the Corps of Judicial Defenders.