Rwanda and the Netherlands yesterday signed an agreement aimed at strengthening the justice sector through sharing expertise, conducting research on judicial issues and problem solving in the judiciary.

The agreement establishes a Rwandan-Dutch advisory panel on justice that will help improve justice procedures in both countries.

The Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye, said the MoU aims at deepening the Rwanda-Dutch cooperation and engagement, sharing experience and expertise and promoting accountable governance as well as observance of human rights.

"We want to deepen our engagement. We have established a panel that will comprise 12 people– six people from either country. The panel will be chaired on a rotational basis for one year,” said Busingye, who is also the Attorney General.

He said the panel will look at existing efforts and devise means to improve the status quo.

"Rule of law will be the cornerstone of our relationship. We want our people to live in an environment where there is rule of law, accountable governance and respect for human rights,” he said.

Busingye said the government of the Netherlands and that of Rwanda have worked closely over the last 15 years to improve the justice sector.

"The Netherlands works with us at an open and accountable level. We account to them and they account to us. It is a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said.

The Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen, who is currently in the country on official visit signed the agreement on behalf of her government.

"We commend this new partnership. We will exchange experts and I am convinced this panel will come up with new ideas in case of new challenges that we have not yet identified,” she said.

Ploumen said governments, besides providing physical infrastructure like roads, bridges and airports or food security also need to provide soft infrastructure.

"And this ‘soft infrastructure’ is probably the rule of law and institutions that underpin that rule of law in a tangible way to ensure accountable governance,” she noted.

"We have been convinced that the Government and Rwandans want to build a justice sector that is accountable to the people and meets the highest international standards and Netherlands is committed to helping Rwanda achieve this goal,” she said.

Busingye said Rwanda worked closely with the Netherlands in different initiatives, including the highly successful Gacaca semi-traditional jurisdiction, putting together the 2003 Constitution and capacity building among others.

Forensic science

Busingye said Rwanda and Netherlands are looking for means to develop forensic science– a scientific method of gathering and examining information about the past which is then used in a court of law.

He said it helps get evidence beyond the ordinary.

"For example if a door is reportedly broken by someone using their hands, forensic evidence through fingerprint test run can be used to trace and find the culprit.

"If a child was raped, forensic science can trace the case and discern not only that the person was raped, but also the one who raped, by testing hair, sperm and other body parts,” he said.

He said there are times when investigations stall at a given point when the person who would really be a culprit denies charges yet, they committed the crime.

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