On 11 October, 2021; the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion through the National Child Development Agency and other key stakeholders celebrated the International Day of the Girl Child. The theme for the celebration was “My Voice-My rights against sexual abuse”

The celebration was matched with the closing of the one-year national campaign against Child defilement, that was launched by the First Lady of Rwanda, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame on October 12, 2020 to call upon all stakeholders to reflect on innovative solutions to halt the child defilement issue.

The event was done through a deliberation meeting that brought together key stakeholders. “Today, we meet again to reflect on what has been achieved, identified gaps, challenges met in handling the matter, and take more aggressive and innovative measures as we will not rest until we stop child defilement” Said Prof. Bayisenga Jeannette, the Minister of Gender and family promotion while opening the event.

She urged all actors to strengthen the partnership to protect children from child development and provide the integrated services to victims for a better reintegration. Pr. Bayisenga also ensured all children a full support to protect them and advised them to take all necessary measures to protect themselves.

At the occasion, the president of the Children’s Forum Committee at National level, Ms. Akoyiremeye Elodie Octavie, thanked the Government of Rwanda and its partners for their continuous efforts to promote child development in general and a girl child in particular. She requested the public to fight any form of discrimination against child sexual abuse victims and report child defilement cases whenever they occur.

Key achievements

The celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child was matched with the official close-out of the annual campaign against child defilement. For this reason, some of the key achievements of the campaign were highlighted at the event.

The office of Rwanda Public Prosecution Authority presented a sex offender registry, a record consisting of the sex offenders’ convict's names and identity. A list of 322 people of whom 315 are male and seven females was released at the event and the public can access it via this website: http://sor.nppa.gov.rw .Releasing the list, the Deputy Prosecutor General Mrs. Angelique Habyarimana, reiterated the importance of publishing the convicted sex offenders

"Publishing the convicted sex offenders aims at discouraging others from committing the same crimes as well as prevent the convicted person from repeating the same offences" She said.

According to Habyarimana, the convict's names and identity will be regularly published in the sex offender registry.

The Rwanda Investigation Bureau also shared key findings of their quantitative analysis on the risk factors associated with child sexual abuse in Rwanda. The data will help to improve approach in the sector of child protection.

“From these quantitative data, we also plan to conduct in-depth study around the root causes of this issue” added Prof. Bayisenge, the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion.