Human rights violations and how to prevent them

1Why this matters

Rwanda knows better than most countries where the denial of human rights can lead: from discrimination to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the gravest violation of all. Learning to recognise violations, and knowing where to report them, is part of every citizen's role in protecting others.

A human rights violation happens when a right is denied or abused, whether by the state, its officials or other people.

Examples of violations

• Against life and security: killing, torture, genocide, human trafficking.
• Against liberty and justice: arbitrary arrest (detention without legal grounds), detention without trial, corruption in courts.
• Discrimination: treating people unfairly because of sex, origin, religion, disability or other status.
• Against children: child labour, child abuse and neglect, denying a child schooling, child marriage (in Rwanda the minimum age of marriage is 21).
• Gender-based violence (GBV): physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence against a person because of their gender, often within families.
• Denial of economic and social rights: unfair dismissal, unpaid work, eviction without due process.

2Why violations happen

• Bad governance, dictatorship and impunity.
• Ideologies of hatred and discrimination.
• Conflict and war.
• Poverty and ignorance of rights.
• Corruption.
• Harmful traditions and attitudes, for example about girls' education or disability.

3How violations are prevented and dealt with

• Education about rights and responsibilities, in schools, the media and communities.
• The rule of law, meaning everyone, including leaders, is subject to the law, with independent courts to enforce it.
• Reporting: to the police (emergency number 112), to the free child helpline 116, or to the Isange One Stop Centres, which support victims of gender-based violence and child abuse in one place.
• Institutions such as the National Commission for Human Rights and the Office of the Ombudsman.
• Civil society and a free media, which expose abuses.
• Unity and good governance, which remove the conditions in which violations grow.

Worked example: responding to a violation

Situation: Ishimwe, 13, has stopped coming to school. You learn that her family has sent her to work as a maid in town.

Rights violated: her right to education, and protection from child labour. What you can do: tell a teacher or the school head, who can contact local leaders; call the child helpline 116. Why it matters: reporting protects Ishimwe, and silence allows the violation to continue.

Practice

Solution. The denial or abuse of a person's rights by the state, its officials or other people.

Solution. Any three of: bad governance and impunity; ideologies of hatred; conflict; poverty and ignorance of rights; corruption; harmful traditions.

Solution. Arresting or detaining someone without legal grounds or proper legal process.

Solution. At an Isange One Stop Centre.