Prosecution Of Sexual And Gender Based Violence Crimes

The mission of NPPA is to “Participate to the Security of People and their property by pursuing the authors of breaches and criminals to bring them to justice with equity of treatment according to the ambition of the Constitution and International Law ratified by Rwanda.”

In the crimes committed include crimes of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). Gender Based Violence (GBV) crimes include; Physical violence, Emotional violence, Economical Violence, Psychological violence and Sexual violence.

To handle such crimes requires a special attention, because they leave victims with grave trauma and other side effects. That is why since 2006, NPPA took a decision of establishing a Specialized Unit for those SGBV crimes. The unit is composed of twelve prosecutors and the same number operates at the intermediate level.

NPPA has deployed different measures and strategies to tackle SGBV crimes although the cases are still many and this requires concerted efforts among all the stakeholders. For instance, in the period from 2013 to 2016, NPPA worked hard to tackle SGBV and the results show are quite encouraging although we still want to do more.

The tables below provide an insight in the cases received, handled and concluded under the crimes of Defilement, Rape, and Harassment of spouse.

1. Defilement (sexual violence against children)

Defilement cases received and handled
Table
Defilement cases pronounced and conviction rate
Table
Note: Conviction rate is still low (77.02% in 2016) because getting evidence of crime remains different and in some cases, prosecutors fail to get evidence.

2. Rape (Sexual violence against adult)

Rape cases received and handled

Table

Rape cases pronounced and conviction rate

Table

For rape, many cases are not reported at the time of crime and this explains why prosecution loses some cases. Reporting the case at the time of crime is very important because prosecution can get evidence early and find scientific results which help to push the case into the courts of law.

3. Harassment Of Spouse

Harassment of spouse cases received and handled

table

Harassment of spouse cases pronounced and Conviction rate
table

Harassment of spouse is the main root cause of different crimes such as homicide, defilement and rape and it is the main cause of the big number of reported cases of street children who also commit other various crimes.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, society still thinks that GBV crimes are committed by men only. However, women also commit GBV crimes, however, on small scale. In 2015-2016, NPPA received 25,453 cases including 25,623 suspects of which 22,814 representing 89% were men while the remaining 2,809 representing 11% were women. If we want to build an equal and just society, this is the time to stand against Sexual and Gender Based crimes.