USAID Duteze Imbera Ubutabera Activity shares Lessons Learned through itsFinal Event

Kigali—On December 9, 2020, the USAID-funded Rwanda Duteze Imbere Ubutabera (DIU) Activity had its final event. This event serves as an opportunity for members of Rwanda’s justice sector (JRLOS), stakeholders and development partners to learn about the activity’s impact over the last three years and to share recommendations for continued progress in
accessing justice.

DIU spanned three-years from February 2018 to January 2021 and aims to
increase access to justice and enhance the rule of law in Rwanda through improving judicial effectiveness in both formal court mechanisms and community justice (Abunzi); and improving public understanding of judicial system processes and legal rights.

The virtual event was graced by Hon. Johnston Busingye, Mr. Mr. Dennis WESNER, the Director, Office of Democracy, and Good Governance/ USAID among others and comprise presentations by key stakeholders and beneficiaries that have engaged with the program.

DIU supported the efforts to improve judicial effectiveness in both formal court mechanisms and community justice (Abunzi); and improved public understanding of judicial system processes and legal rights.

For the past 3 years, has built the capacity of more than 6,500 justice sector actors, including 2,836 mediators (Abunzi) and 507 Judges, Court registrars and other judicial personnel, while more than 7,500 individuals were provided with legal aid services.

Through DIU’s support to community-prisoner reconciliation and reintegration, more than 10,000 people, including 1,946 prisoners were reached. Through DIU support 550 prisoners were able to voluntarily seek forgiveness from and reconcile with their victims and/or their families.

The project covered a range of technical assistance increasing access to justice including gender equality and social inclusion, monitoring, evaluation, and learning and public awareness activities, including a weekly radio program conducted on five radio stations and community dialogues at the grassroots level, that an estimated 1,334,906 people throughout the entire project life span.

“I personally express my satisfaction for what the Duteze Imbere Ubutabera has achieved so far in terms of legal aid service provision and capacity building of justice sector members. Capacity to Justice Actors and more importantly to justice sector members is critical in enabling justice sector institutions to effectively deliver on their mandates as well as improve the service delivery to Rwandans.” Hon. Johnston Busingye said

Watch the recorded Virtual event here: