ILPD students, after witnessing the history of Rwanda both before the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, during the Genocide and after it, declared that what they saw made them become scared and saddened them, and they decided to become advocates and campaigners in their countries of origin and other countries in Africa so that no country will witness Genocide again.
Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, a student of ILPD from Cameroon said: 'First of all I would like to thank our teachers and our leaders who lead us in the 2022 intake for helping us reach the Genocide Memorial.... they are things that make me feel emotionally. What we have seen here makes us decide as lawyers that it will not happen anywhere else, either in our country of origin or in the neighboring countries. It will also help us as lawyers to do our best to advocate and provide legal support to those in danger so that their lives would not be lost."
- Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, a student of ILPD from Cameroon
Musa Sane, from The Gambia also said: "As we come from different countries, coming here to visit the Genocide Memorial and see how Genocide was designed and implemented, as lawyers it will help us know how to prevent and fight against it, and it will also help us know how We are raising awareness among the people of different countries where we come from about the evil of genocide, and we are giving them a testimony of what we have witnessed here."
Kariza Aime Paciance, a student representative of ILPD 2022 intake students, said: "We learned the history that characterized the country of Rwanda in the 1994 Genocide, we strive for it not to happen again and we strive for protecting the good achievements. Because the law came to punish those who committed genocide, it requires us to continue to put efforts both in promoting it and following it in general."
- Kariza Aime Paciance, a student representative of ILPD 2022 intake
Dr. Sezirahiga Yves, The Acting Director of Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD), said that the purpose of this visit is to show the students of this institute the history of Rwanda and to ensure that this Genocide will not happen elsewhere.
'The purpose of this visit is one of the programs our school has, because we have many foreigner students as you have seen. This year we had foreigner students from five different countries. By teaching them the law, we also encourage them to know the history of our country, where it came from, especially because most of our students are from Cameroon, if you know the history of Cameroon, they still have conflicts arising from languages and regions. Bringing them here to see is to show them that divisions do not achieve anything, divisions lead to death, divisions lead to what we faced in 1994 in the Genocide against the Tutsis...' Dr. Sezirahiga Yves said
"The contribution we make is that the law, if used incorrectly, can make people separated, after separating them, it can even lead to some people killing others or some wishing that others would not exist. So that includes the principles of non-discrimination that we teach them, this is to show them where that is. Where the principle of law was not respected and what had happened, where people faced darkness time.' He added
- Dr. Sezirahiga Yves, The Acting Director of ILPD
Dr. Sezirahiga Yves added that the purpose of this trip is to show their students that where Rwanda has come from, it has learned from its wounds and drawn strength to move forward, but all of this is based on unity and reconciliation.
About Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD)
The establishment of this Institute was part of the implementation of the judicial reforms that the Government of Rwanda embarked on in 2004. To meet the demand for a legal workforce with enhanced skills, ILPD was assigned the task of providing the relevant training.
The Institute is also located in Nyanza District, Southern Province. ILPD is more than eight years old, with many hundreds of lawyers, judges and prosecutors have attended its courses. It runs two major postgraduate Diplomas; on Legal practice (DLP) for judges, prosecutors and lawyers, and on Legislative Drafting (DLD) for government lawyers and others responsible for drafting.
ILPD also runs a wide range of continuing legal education (CLE) courses to ensure that all legal professionals are kept up to date and have opportunities to refresh and develop their skills. These courses are taught by ILPD's external faculty of trainers who are experienced legal professionals, and by international trainers.
ILPD is now attracting African continent attention with its innovative approaches to training and reputation for effective, high quality courses. Students from other countries are now discovering and attending its courses and ILPD aspires to meet the needs of legal professionals throughout Africa.
ILPD's objective is to become an ''IHURIRO'', i.e. a meeting place for legal professionals from Rwanda, the region, and Africa, as well as the rest of the world. ILPD is active in organizations that link the East African judicial training institutes. It is also a member of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT), a global body linking judicial training institutes around the world.
ILPD is also a meeting place where different branches of the legal profession, different legal traditions (Common law, Civilian and traditional) can meet and learn from each other.
Source : https://imirasire.com/?ILPD-students-decide-to-fight-against-Genocide-wherever-they-will-be
