Weaponisation of the Genocide Against the Tutsi: A Tool of Oppression and a Barrier to Freedom

About this campaign

Since 1994, the Rwandan government has invoked the memory of the genocide against the Tutsi not only to commemorate its victims, but as an instrument of political control. Any citizen, journalist, politician or activist who criticises the government risks being accused of "genocide ideology", "negationism" or "divisionism", vague offences that carry heavy prison sentences and that have been repeatedly documented as tools for silencing legitimate criticism.

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights is launching this campaign to demand an end to the weaponisation of the genocide against the Tutsi as a tool of oppression and a means of stopping the free expression of the Rwandan people.

How the genocide is weaponised

Vague laws used against opponents. Rwanda's laws on genocide ideology and divisionism are drafted so broadly that ordinary political speech can be prosecuted. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly found that these laws have been used to criminalise critics rather than to protect survivors.

Opposition figures branded as deniers. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was arrested within days of returning home to contest an election, in part because she called for the commemoration of all victims of the massacres of the 1990s. Diane Rwigara was barred from standing for president and prosecuted. In each case, accusations tied to genocide narratives were used to remove a critic from public life.

Journalists and citizens silenced. Independent journalists reporting on the government's record face charges connected to genocide ideology or sectarianism when their reporting becomes inconvenient. Ordinary Rwandans know that a careless remark about the past can cost them their liberty, their livelihood or their safety.

A monopoly on memory. By policing how the genocide may be discussed, the government has turned one of history's greatest crimes into a shield for present day abuses. Genuine reconciliation requires open, honest debate about everything that happened, not a state enforced narrative enforced through fear.

Our demands

1. Amend or repeal the laws on genocide ideology and divisionism so that they cannot be used to punish legitimate speech, in line with the recommendations of international human rights bodies.
2. Release and exonerate all prisoners convicted for exercising their rights to expression, association and political participation, including Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Diane Rwigara and Cyuma Hassan.
3. Guarantee freedom of commemoration so that Rwandans may honour every victim of the violence of the 1990s without state permission and without fear.
4. End prosecutions for speech, and invite independent human rights observers to monitor trials and prisons.
5. Protect survivors, whose dignity is served by honest justice, not by the political exploitation of their suffering.

What you can do

• Share this campaign widely and publicly, so that the government of Rwanda knows the world is watching.
• Write to your representatives and ask them to raise the misuse of genocide ideology laws with the Rwandan authorities.
• Support our work documenting these cases, and report to us any case where the accusation of genocide ideology has been used against a critic, journalist or opposition figure.

Remembering the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi is a moral duty. Using their memory to jail critics is a betrayal of that duty. Join us in demanding that Rwanda's past be honoured with truth, and its future be built on freedom.