To lessen harsh sentences, the government has recommended amending the laws governing offenses and penalties in general, as well as criminal proceedings.
The idea stemmed from a criminal report presented to parliament by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) on June 26, 2023.
According to the data, the number of offenses has risen from 39,900 in 2019 to 84,453 this year.
According to Soline Nyirahabimana, Minister of State in charge of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, the idea is predicated on giving judges greater latitude while also providing for additional illegal activities that are not already penalized by law.
The law aims to include public immorality and nudity on the list of penal offenses while also reducing the prison population through parole.
The proposal is also based on the Criminal Justice Policy (September 2022), which specifies activities such as modifying the law to match it with the new policy direction for punishment and correction, as well as offender rehabilitation.
Judges should be given more latitude.
Even if the judge finds there are substantial grounds for mitigating circumstances, the existing law provides for specific offenses that cannot be reduced by any circumstances.
This limits judges’ discretion in assessing fair penalties because the legislation forbids some instances from considering mitigating elements that may assist the offender, so limiting the right to a fair trial.
This also defies the idea that a judge generally sets a penalty based on the following factors: the gravity of the offence, its consequences, the offender’s motivation for committing the offence, the offender’s prior record, personal circumstances, and the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offence.
In this regard, the draft law states that if the judge finds mitigating circumstances, he or she may reduce penalties such that life imprisonment may be reduced to a penalty of imprisonment of not less than ten years; a fixed-term imprisonment of six months or more may be reduced but cannot be less than half (1/2) of the minimum sentence provided by the law; and a jail sentence of less than six months may be suspended.
Furthermore, a fine may be lowered to one-quarter (1/4) of the minimum fine prescribed for the offense committed, and a community service penalty may be deferred.
Making child defilement a punishable offense
According to the proposed bill, child defilement is on the rise and has an impact on Rwandan society.
The majority of the time, suspects in this crime disappear after committing the crime, only to return when the time has come to commence criminal action. In other circumstances, the victims of this crime may be unaware that it is a crime, or they may be reluctant to expose it owing to the threats they have been told.
And by the time they find out and reveal it, the prescriptive period has passed, making prosecution of the criminals impossible.
The draft bill includes other banned behaviors with negative repercussions that are not defined by law as offenses, although there has been an increase in such cases.
These include, for example, public obscenity and nudity; interfering with a public auction; willingly failing to carry out a court judgment; and the production, sale, distribution, or importation of defective or dangerous items to humans.
MP Frank Habineza questioned whether these revisions were founded on any research to indicate why crimes are recurrent, but there is also a need to explain nudity or else end up prosecuting numerous girls wearing miniskirts on social media.
“Rwandan women have the right to dress in a modern manner, as long as it is not nudity.” “A mini skirt makes people scream, but nudity depends on the observer,” Habineza explained.
Safari Begumisa and Jean Pierre Hindura, both MPs, questioned why the maximum term of life in prison was reduced to 15 years, which is insignificant and dilutes the meaning of the punishment.
Minister Nyirahabimana stated that everything is designed to provide the court the capacity to tackle societal problems, and the Chief Justice (CJ) will establish guidelines on how the judges can make autonomous decisions and serve justice.
