Committees of community mediators locally known as Abunzi, who had completed their five-year tenure in July this year, have been allowed to resume services following an amendment of the law published in the official gazette last week, Friday November 20. New committees were supposed to assume office on August 1, but elections were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Martine Urujeni, the Head of Access to Justice Department at the Ministry of Justice, explained that under its article 6, the law was amended to allow continuation of duties if there is an event of force majeure, which makes it impossible to conduct elections. That means the members of Abunzi Committee whose term has expired will continue to carry out their duties until the election of their replacements. She was speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, November 25 at the ministry’s headquarters in Kacyiru. Abunzi represents a hybrid of the conventional justice system and Rwanda’s traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. There is a mediation committee at every cell to handle cases on the first instance and a similar one at the sector level, which handles appeals. They are elected by the people at the village level to resolve disputes that were previously referred to as courts of law. Ordinarily, Urujeni explained that Abunzi committees are elected for a five-year term after which a new committee is elected. “This is what we initially expected in the last days of July, but we encountered challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.” Urujeni also emphasized that the committees have not been given another term. “This doesn’t mean that they are given a new term of 5 years. Rather, the amended article grants them the authority to resume their services as new committees have not been elected” “The new committees can be elected at any time when the pandemic no longer poses any threat. That can be in a month or even after a year,” she said. Data from the Ministry of Justice indicates that over 2,650 claims which ordinarily fall under the jurisdiction of Abunzi were recorded between August 1, and October 22. “The new committees have been assigned to solve those cases that were registered in these past two months. This is to ensure that all these claims are settled as usual”. The cases, she said, had previously been filed to the executive secretaries of cell and sector respectively.
