Writing history through criminal law: State-Sponsored memory in Rwanda

Abstract

This chapter offers a detailed analysis of the so-called ‘memory laws’ passed in Rwanda to punish the denial and the trivialization of the 1994 genocide. In particular it discusses the Rwandan law 47/2001 on discrimination and sectarianism, law 33 bis of 2003 punishing the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and law 18/2008 on the crime of ‘genocide ideology’ in the light of international human rights standards. The nefarious impact on Rwandan society of these laws curbing freedom of expression and of the related jurisprudence is elaborated upon, with particular attention to the cases of Victoire Ingabire, one of the main opposition leaders, and of the Rwandan journalists Agnès Uwimana-Nkusi and Saidati Mukakibibi. The chapter concludes that post-genocide Rwanda emerges as another context where state authorities have recurred to ‘public use of history’, exploiting the memory of the past violence in order to strengthen their grip on power.