Background and Rationale

The government of Rwanda and private sector are in dire need of professional legislative drafters. The drafting skills of Rwandan civil servants at Rwanda Law Reform Commission , other ministries, public institutions , parliament  and private sector is unfortunately not yet at the level that should be expected. The vast majority of the legislative drafters have only very little experience, as lawyers but even less as legislative drafters. Legislative Drafting is a field of law that requires special skills in that domain.

Much of the responsibility for drafting falls on the Legal Advisors in line ministries. These lawyers have little to formal drafting training, and often no drafting experience. This means that either the law is poorly drafted, or the law is drafted by an outside consultant who is inexperienced with the substantive area of the law. While a consultant can theoretically provide a high-quality draft, often it may be that he or she does not meet the high performance standards public servants in Rwanda are held to, but rather simply provided the lowest bid in the tender process. In particular, foreign consultants may not be familiar with the Rwandan legal context or style, or issues particular to Rwanda in the area in which they are drafting.

Considering the fact that most of the Rwandan lawyers involved in drafting laws have not been trained in Legislative Drafting, ILPD started, in 2012, a Diploma in Legislative Drafting (DLD).

The program was accredited by the Higher Council of Education in 2011.