Today is Liberation Day. This is a day when Rwandans world over commemorate the end of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. In order to prevent the tragic events that struck the country 24 years ago from reoccurrence, N° 84/2013 of 11/09/2013 the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences was instituted. The law prohibits advocating for, inciting, negating, minimising or justifying genocide. Additionally, it outlaws concealment or destruction of evidence of genocide, and other related acts. Article 3 of N° 84/2013 of 11/09/2013 defines acts which constitute the crime of genocide ideology. They include any deliberate act to advocate for the commission of genocide, and supporting the genocide. These acts can be committed by way of speaking, writing, using video recordings, or any other avenue that communicates ethnic, religious, national, or racial bias. If a person publicly acts in a way that encourages, influences, induces or coerces another person to commit genocide, such a person is said to have committed the crime of incitement to commit genocide. This is according to article 4 of the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences. Negation of genocide is defined in article 5 of the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences as stating or explaining that genocide is not genocide. This can include deliberately presenting misleading facts, supporting a double genocide theory for Rwanda, or saying that the genocide against the Tutsi was not planned. This is punishable. In article 6 of the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences, minimisation of genocide is prohibited. And by definition, minimisation of genocide includes downplaying the gravity or consequences of genocide and downplaying the methods through which genocide was committed. If anyone publicly and deliberately acts in a way that glorifies, supports, or legitimises the genocide, they commit the offense of justifying the genocide. This is according to article 7 of the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences. Concealment or destruction of evidence of genocide or other related crimes is prohibited in article 8 of N° 84/2013 of 11/09/2013. This is done by way of degrading or eliminating information related to genocide or other crimes against humanity. Article 9 of N° 84/2013 of 11/09/2013 forbids the theft or destruction of memorial sites victims of genocide while article 10 outlaws demolishing a memorial site or cemetery for the victims of genocide. “Demolishing” is defined in article 10 as “desecrating, bringing down, breaking, damaging a memorial site or cemetery for the victims of genocide, symbols of a memorial site or cemetery for the victims of genocide, or committing desecration on a memorial site or cemetery for the victims of genocide.” Violence against a genocide survivor is another thing that the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences forbids. Violence in this case is any act of harassment, intimidation, and dehumanisation, ridiculing the genocide victim, boasting about their loss, mocking, insulting or destroying their property. Offenses mentioned in the law on the crime of genocide ideology and other related offences carry heavy penalties, some which are as severe as life imprisonment.
