The Indigenous World 2026: Rwanda

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Rwanda

The Batwa of Rwanda, just like their counterparts in the Great Lakes Region, remain an extremely marginalised group in Rwanda, socially, economically, and politically.^[1] They remain a minority at 1% of the population of approximately 12.4 million people, according to National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda in 2019. These hunters and gatherers have remained intrinsically intertwined with the forest ecosystem, deeply knowledgeable on the forests and their resources, with pottery being their major socioeconomic activity.^[2]

After the genocide in 1994, in an effort to promote unity, the Rwandan government banned references to ethnicity and preferred to refer to the Batwa, due to their historically known injustices, as part of the Historically Marginalised Peoples (HMPs), a term used to refer to groups marginalised by history. Whereas the justification may sound genuine given the circumstances, unfortunately for the Batwa it has served to overshadow the factors that sustain their discrimination and marginalisation.^[3]

The Batwa are therefore not officially recognised as an Indigenous group nor given rights and protections as such. Rwanda is a State Party to the following charters: African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and others; however, the country has not ratified the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) or ILO Convention 169.^[4]

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Political representation

According to the African Initiative for Mankind Progress Organisation (AIMPO), a non-governmental organisation, the political representation of Batwa interests is reflected in the Rwanda government’s consideration of Historically Marginalised Peoples (HMPs), a collective name under which the Batwa are categorised. President Paul Kagame has frequently nominated Batwa into the Senate.

However, no Batwa were not nominated in 2025, which runs counter to the constitutional provision for representation and has been the only hope for political representation of the most excluded group in Rwanda. According to Article 80, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, which guarantees equality, freedom of expression, and inclusive governance, the president must appoint eight members of the Senate that ensure the representation of HMPs.^[5] The decision not to appoint any Batwa to the current Senate has erased any hope of meaningful representation and thus minimised opportunities within the Rwandan legislature to advocate for concerns specific to the Batwa’s state of well-being. Importantly, it ran counter to a constitutional requirement founded on consensual and pluralistic democracy, power sharing, national unity and reconciliation, good governance, social justice, tolerance, and the resolution of problems through dialogue.

Batwa living with disabilities

Families with disabilities experience higher levels of vulnerability in many ways. For instance, interactions with communities from Nyaruguru, Kamonyi, Burera Gasabo and Gatsibo in July 2025 indicated that Batwa children with disabilities lack support to facilitate their education; they are thus kept at home and do not attend school. Those who manage to access schools are faced with the reality that no teachers have the capacity to assist them, and that there are inadequate facilities in schools to cater for different disabilities, such as access ramps for buildings built before 2020, customised toilets or accessible facilities for rehabilitation. Although these problems are faced by all children with disabilities, the Batwa are doubly marginalised due to the discrimination they already face as a minority. Progressive government programmes such as “Uburezi budaheza” or “non-exclusionary education” are yet to fully guarantee the inclusion of Batwa children with disabilities.^[6]

Although Batwa with disabilities can access the basic healthcare services that are available at health centres and district hospitals, it remains difficult to reach specialised or higher-level hospitals because the health insurance they have does not cover such costs. There is also limited awareness among Batwa with disabilities even as regards accessing services that exist within the districts. Batwa with disabilities live in extreme poverty, making it further difficult to pay for the health insurance that would give them access to appropriate medication and healthcare. Access to buildings and facilities for the visually and speech impaired is rarely available and assistive devices and replacement services that could help them request services in a way that is not burdensome are not prioritised in many hospitals.

Inclusive development

The Rwandan government, supported by the World Bank Project “Investing in Forests and Protected Areas for Climate Smart Development (IFPA-CD)” in Nyungwe and Gishwati-Mukura national parks, aimed at improving livelihoods, supporting tourism-related initiatives, enhancing climate-resilient livelihoods, restoring landscapes, and improving the sustainable management of forests and protected areas through agroforestry and community-based, nature-based enterprises, has been criticised as contributing to the exclusion of the Batwa (referred to under the Vulnerable and Marginalised Groups Plan (VMGP)) from their ancestral forests.^[7]

Poverty and discrimination

Rwanda has made significant progress in reducing poverty, lifting nearly 1.5 million people out of poverty between 2017 and 2024, according to Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, during his visit in May 2025. However, the Batwa continue to face severe challenges, with 98% living in extreme poverty.^[8] This is largely due to the lack of government recognition of the Batwa as a group requiring special attention. The Batwa population today stands at between 25,000-30,000.

Batwa poverty is exacerbated by discrimination, and a lack of access to education, land and government opportunities. The Batwa face calculated economic marginalisation through the destruction of their traditional pottery industry. The government's policies reveal a stark double standard: while Chinese ceramics freely enter the market, Batwa artisans are systematically denied access to sources of clay due to restrictive wetland policies. Other craft industries receive state support while our pottery tradition –a cornerstone of both our cultural identity and economic survival– is intentionally undermined.

Cultural preservation

The government emphasis on national unity has silently and deliberately suppressed Batwa Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural expressions. State policies that criminalise ethnicity have eliminated the Batwa identity and cultural heritage.

Firstly, the Batwa’s sacred Intwatwa music and dance tradition faces deliberate suppression. This is not mere neglect because while their community is prevented from practising these traditions, the government actively supports non-Batwa performers who have appropriated the same cultural expressions. This cultural theft occurs while the Batwa artists are silenced, representing a clear violation of their intellectual and cultural property rights.

Secondly, and most egregiously, Batwa ceremonial rituals and practices form the very fabric of their community’s social and spiritual life, yet they continue to be criminalised. For instance, their end-of-year ceremonies, where chiefs gather their communities together for blessings and spiritual guidance, are now forbidden under forced assimilation policies. Examples of such policies include the government's “collective settlement” programme, which has effectively outlawed Batwa traditional gatherings, severing the crucial links between generations and disrupting the transmission of their ancient knowledge. This cultural genocide is executed through Rwanda's aggressive “de-ethnicisation” campaign, which has forced integration at the lowest societal level without resources or support, rendered the Batwa institutional systems invisible and criminalised organising around their cultural preservation, something that is crucial for strong identity. This has been exacerbated by a masking of their identity under the generic label of HMPs, coined by the government.^[9]

Agnes Kabajuni is the Regional Director for Minority Rights Group Africa Office with vast experience of minorities in Africa.

Richard Ntakirutimana is the Executive Director of AIMPO, an NGO dedicated to advocacy and development activities for the Historically Marginalised People in Rwanda.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, April 2025. https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/2126842/INT_CCPR_ICS_RWA_63027_E.pdf accessed 13 February 2026

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR), 28 April 2025.https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCCPR%2FICS%2FRWA%2F63041&Lang=en accessed on 13 February 2026

^[4] International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA): Report of the African Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities, Mission to the Republic of Rwanda. December 2008: https://iwgia.org/images/publications/0474_randa_2-engelsk.pdf

^[5] Rwanda Bar Association. The Constitution of The Republic of Rwanda of 2003. Revised in 2015, https://www.rwandabar.org.rw/attached_pdf/Constitution%20of%20the%20Republic%20of%20Rwanda-1608275353.pdf

^[6] Minority Rights Group reports from Minority and Indigenous Peoples' Collective Action & Networking (MIP CAN), September 2025. 

^[7] End of mission statement by Mr. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, 19-30 May 2025, p. 13. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/poverty/sr/statements/2025-05-30-eom-sr-poverty-rwanda-en.pdf

^[8] Un Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Mr. Olivier De Schutter, End of mission statement, May 2025, Special Procedures, United Nations Human Rights.

^[9] Reports from African Initiative for Mankind Progress Organization (AIMPO) by Richard Ntakirutimana 2025.

Tags: Global governance