Rwanda’s Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have called government and laws’ activists to refine policies that aims to protect victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV) so that they get quick and proper supports.
The call was made on Tuesday, October 15th, 2019 in Kigali by Members of Civil Society Organizations that work in justice Sector through a special thematic working group meeting.
Speaking to the media during this meeting, Nooliet Kabanyana, Executive Secretary of Rwanda NGOs Forum working on AIDS and Health Promotion, civil society organizations want to make sure that women are empowered and educated so that they keep growing within the national development.
She said that an effective GBV protection and response requires collaboration efforts and increasing number of interventions based on research and evidence.
“we cannot do anything in protecting GBV and provide legal aid among the victims when we do not have evidence, so, to be able to make answers we need to work collaboratively among the government, development partners and CSOs to be able to generate evidence and be able to prevent GBV and also make sure that we are providing legal aid among the GBV victims,” Kabanyana noted.
She said that in Rwanda, emphasis is put in prevention and there is still a need for findings and effective mechanisms to protect GBV victims.
Anastase Nabahire, the coordinator of Justice, Reconciliation, Law and Order Sector Strategy (JRLOS) at the ministry of Justice (MINIJUST) thanked CSOs for their activities to advocate for issues of concerns and prevent them as well as fighting the consequences they cause.
He said that no one could violate other’s sexual rights, but people need to understand that having a different sex from your colleague is God’s will for people to complement each other instead of being the cause of violence.
“We are happy for the recommendations from this meeting and we expect that they will help us join citizens from the grassroots levels by sharing the information on the badness of GBV crime. We commit partnership with these CSOs to advocate for the victims,” Nabahire said.
Countrywide, there are 44 Isange One Stop Centers to help victims of GBV and will be spread in all health centers.
Nabahire said that the government of Rwanda has agreement with advocates’ council to help GBV victims where they are assisted free of charge. Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) and Police have also made a tremendous journey of building strategies to assist the victims and follow on criminals.
