NAME OF MECHANISM

National Unity and Reconciliation Commission

PERIOD OF OPERATION

12 March 1999 – present. The commission became a permanent institution in 2002.

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) was established by Law 03/99 on 12 March 1999. It has a broad mandate, with its main focus being to foster national debates on reconciliation, build tolerance and sensitise Rwandans to related issues.

Staff: Twelve commissioners with renewable three-year terms, supported by an Executive Secretariat.

Structure: NURC’s three units are Civic Education, Peacebuilding and Conflict Management, and Administration and Finance.

Budget: Annual budget of US$300,000. The commission’s funders include the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Women, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the European Union.

RESOURCES

National Unity and Reconciliation Commission official website
Law 03/99 Establishing the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission [1999]
National Summit Report [2000] (in French)

RESULTS

NURC’s main work has been organising national summits on reconciliation, with the first held in October 2000. The commission also runs several reconciliation projects, including civic education, community-based “reconciliation clubs” and mediation committees known as Abunzi.

The commission has suggested that political and socioeconomic disparities were at the root of the genocide. It recommended that parliament pass an anti-discrimination law, which occurred in October 2001. It also recommended that the government incorporate a history textbook written by the commission’s Civic Education unit into the school curriculum, but this recommendation has not been implemented [USIP].

BACKGROUND

NURC was provided for in Article 16 of the 1993 Arusha Accords. It works independently of the other transitional justice mechanisms designed for Rwanda.

SOURCES

[USIP]