Under Rwandan law, all children are equal and it is expected that every child will be cared for and protected to the full extent of their rights. Article 4 of the law relating to the rights and the protection of the child says: “Children are born equal and entitled to the enjoyment of rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed by the law and are provided with the protections which are required by their childhood condition without any discrimination.” In article 3 of the law relating to the rights and protection of the child, discrimination is defined as any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based in particular on the race, the color, the sex, the language, the religion, the political or other types of opinion of the child, his/her parents or his/her guardians, the national or social origin, the fortune, the birth, or any other status, that can compromise or destroy the recognized, the enjoyment or the exercise by the child of all his/her guaranteed rights and freedoms. For example, in certain homes, preferential treatment is given to a particular sex and this is lawfully wrong. Some parents may even go as far as neglecting a child because they are of a particular sex. However, article 18 of the law of prevention and punishment of gender-based violence states: “Any person who does not care for his/her child or exercise harassment on him/her because of whether the latter is a boy or a girl or exercise harassment on his/her spouse shall be liable to imprisonment of six (6) months to three (3) years.” Article 18 further states that any person who does not care for the child he is responsible for because the latter is a boy or a girl shall be liable to penalties referred to in the paragraph one of this article. However, paragraph two of article 4 of the law relating to the rights and the protection of the child also states that the adoption of positive measures in favor of groups of disadvantaged children, in order to mitigate or eliminate conditions which cause or contribute to perpetuate discrimination shall not be considered as a form of discrimination. So, for instance, a school builds a special toilet for physically impaired children or has a hygiene room for girls, it does not mean that they are being discriminated against. It counts as taking positive measures to eliminate conditions that bring about discrimination.
