The Government of Rwanda has recently adopted the Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) and Criminal Justice (CJ) policies to address out of court disputes, to reduce the court’s cases backlog, and to empower citizens to play an active role in addressing their community disputes without litigation.

Opening the discussions, Dr Yves Sezirahiga, Vice Rector in Charge of Academic Affairs highlighted that the main objective of the focus group discussions is to conduct a capacity need assessment for the implementation of the above policies and propose capacity-building strategy.

The Ministry of Justice commissioned the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD) to conduct this study and it is supported by UNDP and UNICEF Rwanda.