Project

Access to Justice and Human Rights Education (Rwanda)

Grantee: Human Rights First Rwanda Association

The project’s general objective was to increase access to justice for marginalized groups among the rural population of the southern district of Kamonyi, including people living with HIV/AIDS and the Twa ethnic minority. The project document highlighted that access to justice in Rwanda was a privilege reserved for the elite: an urban prerogative that discriminates against uneducated, low-income populations living largely in rural areas.
The project was built around three main areas of activity: providing direct access to free legal assistance, through the opening and daily operation of a Legal Aid Clinic in the rural district of Kamonyi; setting up a citizens’ system and strengthening local capacity to address judicial issues through the education and training of paralegals; and creating a responsible and solidarity-based dynamic where law students provided direct legal as part of their school curriculum. The project was highly relevant, as it was tailored to local legal mechanisms put in place by the national framework to reform and decentralize the justice system. Overall the project improved legal structures and services in the Kamnoyi district and contributed to greater justice at the local level.

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Lessons from Project

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The project could have further developed the printed support material and continued distributing it to paralegals so that it could be replicated and assimilated into other ongoing activities. The material should have been more didactic while maintaining a flexible format. The material should have been written in the local language with a more manageable length using clear examples and visual illustrations.

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One factor limiting the relevance of the project was that the university law students involved in the Legal Aid Clinic were not individually graded. Their activities in the project ultimately had no impact on them obtaining credits toward their education or their law degree, thus reducing the relevance of the project to the students themselves.

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The project’s emphasis on training women paralegals was another key factor in sustainability, as the higher social status acquired through training encourages women to become more invested in their communities, thanks to the mechanisms for recognition and confidence building.

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The grantee focused on upgrading the paralegals’ skills. This was based on their strategic vision of building human capital. The project sought to create a multiplier effect by training volunteer paralegals and law students who would then apply their knowledge and experience in rural areas to foster a better understanding of the law and the settlement of disputes once the project had been completed.

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The project improved the training provided to the university law students by introducing a practical dimension that brought them closer to local issues and realities. It also significantly raised awareness among law students in the capital about the legal situation and recurrent problems in rural areas and how the law was enforced there.

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The project made sure that women were included in the paralegal network. This made the project more representative and promoted the defense of women’s interests at the local level. This approach also dovetailed with a recent initiative by the Ministry of Gender and Family, which in early 2013 introduced the “Umugoroba evenings” – public events to enable women to interact and share advice.

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