No Right to Protest: Rwanda's Regime Bans All Assembly and Arrests Those Who Dare to Gather

No Right to Assemble

Rwandans cannot protest. The regime bans all demonstrations, arrests organisers and uses violence to disperse gatherings. Freedom of assembly - the right to gather, to march, to collectively express political views - does not exist in Rwanda. An oppressive regime treats all public gathering as a threat to its power.

This is not a matter of restrictive permitting processes or bureaucratic inconvenience. It is a total prohibition on the exercise of a fundamental human right, enforced through arrest, violence and fear.

How the Regime Suppresses Assembly

The regime uses multiple tools to prevent any form of public gathering: - Prior authorisation that is never granted: While the law technically requires permits for demonstrations, in practice permits for any political gathering are systematically denied. Organisers who apply are themselves flagged for surveillance and potential arrest. - Pre - emptive arrests: Individuals known to be planning protests are arrested before the event takes place - on charges of 'genocide ideology,' 'spreading false information,' or 'threatening national security.' - Violent dispersal: The few gatherings that do occur are met with overwhelming force - beatings, tear gas, arrests and detention. - Intimidation of organisers: Those who attempt to organise protests face surveillance, threats, harassment of family members and arrest. - Digital surveillance of organising: Social media and messaging apps are monitored. Individuals who use these platforms to organise gatherings are identified and arrested. - Infiltration of organising efforts: Informants embedded in communities report any attempt to organise collective action back to the security services.

The Genocide Weapon

The regime uses the memory of the 1994 genocide to justify the total prohibition on assembly. Public gatherings are framed as potential threats to national unity - vehicles for 'divisionism' or 'genocide ideology.' The regime cynically exploits the memory of a national tragedy to criminalise the fundamental right to collective expression.

By branding all protest as a potential vehicle for 'genocide ideology,' the regime frames its suppression of assembly as atrocity prevention rather than political repression. This allows international partners to look the other way - accepting the regime's framing of all public dissent as a security threat.

The Broader Pattern

The prohibition on assembly is part of the regime's systematic elimination of all mechanisms through which citizens might hold power to account: - Free elections do not exist - the ruling RPF wins with 99% of the vote - A free press does not exist - journalists are imprisoned, exiled or killed - Independent civil society does not exist - organisations are shut down - An independent judiciary does not exist - courts deliver predetermined verdicts - Political opposition does not exist - opponents are jailed, exiled or killed

Without the right to assemble, citizens cannot collectively express dissent, demand accountability or organise for change. An oppressive regime understands this - which is why freedom of assembly is among the first rights it eliminates.

The Consequence

The total suppression of assembly means that Rwandans have no peaceful avenue to express grievances, demand rights or hold the regime to account. When all peaceful channels for collective expression are closed, the regime creates the conditions for deeper instability - while using the absence of visible protest as evidence of public support.

The regime points to the absence of protests as proof of its popularity. But there are no protests because protesting is not possible. The silence is not consent - it is fear.

What Is Needed

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights calls for: - The immediate end to the prohibition on peaceful assembly - The release of all individuals arrested for organising or participating in demonstrations - An end to the use of 'genocide ideology' laws to criminalise peaceful protest - International scrutiny of the regime's suppression of assembly rights - Protection for individuals who attempt to exercise their right to peaceful assembly

Freedom of assembly is a fundamental human right. An oppressive regime that denies it - that arrests, beats and imprisons citizens for the crime of gathering together - violates that right every day. The international community must not allow the regime's exploitation of genocide memory to justify the total suppression of a fundamental freedom.