Survivors Fund (SURF), in partnership with REDRESS, has supported IBUKA in the drafting of a submission on a new draft Presidential Order on the implementation of Community Service (TIG) in Rwanda.

TIG a critical issue , which disproportionately affects survivors – economically, socially and psychologically – resulting from the unprecedented number of convicted genocide perpetrators that have been given TIG as an alternative penalty to imprisonment, in many cases because they were insolvent and unable to honour compensation awards made to survivors for the looting or damage of their property.

We publish here the full submission, the executive of summary of which reads:

IBUKA expresses significant concerns regarding the draft Presidential Order determining the modalities of implementation of Community Service (TIG) as an alternative penalty to imprisonment. It puts on record dissatisfaction on not being consulted on the draft, as a number of the articles negatively impact on the survivors of the Tutsi genocide, especially their right to reparation (in the form of both restitution and compensation) that otherwise may have been made possible through the implementation of TIG. Also, the draft potentially infringes on the right of survivors to claim restitution or compensation for looted or damaged property in future from convicted perpetrators in cases where they become solvent. IBUKA calls for a meeting with the Ministry of Justice (MINIJUST) so that the views of the survivors will be considered in the process of strengthening the implementation of the new Presidential Order if it is enacted in its current form.

We hope that MINIJUST will hark the concerns of survivors, in particular due to the failure of it to do so in respect to the earlier submission of IBUKA on the related issue on the draft law on the terminating gacaca courts.