Kigali June 18, 2019: The Government of Rwanda and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands today signed a financing agreement worth Euros 9.3 million (approximately Frw 9.2 billion) grant agreement to support the justice sector.

EUR 5.4 million of the grant will support the Supreme Court and National Public Prosecution Authority to improve specialized legal knowledge and skills for judges and prosecutors and reduce backlog cases in courts. It will also provide for adequate and easily accessible legal information to judges and prosecutors to help them while analyzing and deciding on cases. Lastly, the agreement also includes support to the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit to support their ongoing work.

Rwanda Correctional Services will receive EUR 3.9 million which will be used to build 10 vocational training centers in 5 prisons and provide opportunities to prisoners to gain vocational skills and a diploma. The grant will also support the improvement of institutional capacity and capabilities through the development of a complete training curriculum for all RCS staff and development of rehabilitation programs to help RCS comply with rules and regulations and treatment of prisoners up to international standards.

The Minister of State in charge of Economic Planning Dr. Claudine Uwera acknowledged Government of the Kingdom of Netherlands for the strong support to Rwanda’s Justice Sector.

“This Support will contribute to the improvement of the quality of judgments in our justice sector. I look forward to continued good cooperation,” Minister Uwera said.

The Netherland Ambassador to Rwanda Frédérique de Man noted that: “A little more than twenty years ago our involvement in the Rwandan Justice sector commenced. We started with infrastructure: building prisons and court houses and transitioned to capacity development. With these project we continue to build on past achievements and aim for a qualitative improvement of what is already there”

Besides the support to the Justice Sector, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands also supports in the areas of Private Sector Development, Decentralization and Governance, Agriculture and Water & sanitation.