Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Birth Registration

Rwanda’s Law No. 32/2016 of 28/08/2016 Governing Persons and Family (Loi n° 32/2016 du 28/08/2016 régissant les personnes et la famille) provides the following:

[Rwanda English version]

Article 61: Proof of [C]ivil [S]tatus

Civil status for persons is only established and proved by civil status records issued in conformity with provisions of this law. It is also established exceptionally by judgments replacing or correcting these records or by judgments in relation to civil status.

Civil status records or judgments replacing or correcting them are binding upon all persons whatsoever.

…

Article 100: Declaration of [C]hild's [B]irth

Every child must be declared within thirty (30) days after birth.

The declaration of birth is made by the child’s father or mother or, in case of impossibility, by a person to whom they have granted authorization or any person exercising parental authority over the child.

In the absence of the persons referred to in Paragraph 2 of this Article, the declaration is made by any other person present at the child’s birth or a close relative.

The declaration of birth is made upon presentation of a medical birth certificate issued by the health facility where the child was born. In case the child was not born in a health facility, the declaration is made upon presentation of a birth certificate issued by a competent authority of the place of birth of the child indicating the names of the child’s parents and date of birth and in the presence of two (2) witnesses aged at least eighteen (18) years.

The director of a prison must register the birth of the child born in the prison of which he/she is director with the civil registrar of the place of location of the prison, with the permission of the child’s parent. (Rwanda 2016)

According to Irembo, a web portal providing access to Rwandan government services, the requirements for registering a birth are as follows:

[Irembo English version]

1. The hospital birth certificate;
2. The identity cards of the parents;
3. A registration within thirty (30) days of birth or "Jugement supplétif" for cases of late registration;
4. The marriage certificate or the physical presence of the parents if they are not officially married. (Rwanda n.d.a)

2. Requirements and Procedure for Obtaining a Copy of a Birth Certificate

Article 105 of Law No. 32/2016 provides the following:

[Rwanda English version]

Everyone has the right to be given a copy or extract of his/her birth record. Except ascendants and descendants of a person on the direct lineage, his/her spouse, his/her guardian or his/her legal representative, no one else can be issued with such a copy unless they are given power of attorney.

In case the civil registrar refuses to issue such a copy, a person who is denied the copy may refer the matter to the immediate supervisor of the civil registrar. In case of unsatisfactory response, he/she petitions the competent court which decides the case under summary procedure.

Any person wishing to receive a birth record but not having declared the child’s birth within the period provided for by this Law is liable to an administrative fine determined by a Presidential Order.

However, in case the child requesting a birth record has no parents, he/she receives the record without paying the fine. (Rwanda 2016)

The US Department of State's Rwanda Reciprocity Schedule reads as follows:

An acte de naissance is issued by Rwandan civil registrars in the sector where the birth occurred…. The acte de naissance is the only legal birth certificate in Rwanda and is the only birth document accepted by [the US] Embassy [in] Kigali. (US n.d., italics in original)

The information in the following paragraph, on the procedure and requirements for obtaining a birth certificate, comes from the Irembo portal:

Rwandan citizens may apply for a copy of a birth certificate online, by mobile telephone via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) or by contacting one of the Irembo agents listed on the portal. Irembo states the following:

[Irembo English version]

The application will be submitted to Local Government authorities for processing. This document has a life time validity and can serve as one of the supporting documents for the application of services such as school admission, child adoption, certificate of full identity, legal marriage registration, to mention a few.

To apply, the applicant must first submit the application and pay the corresponding fees, then wait for a civil status officer to review and approve the application. Once the application is approved, notification is sent to the applicant, who must appear before the civil status officer of the chosen sector along with proof of payment and the required documents. Processing time is one day, and the cost is 2,000 Rwandan francs (RWF) [approximately C$3] (Rwanda n.d.b). The following supporting documents must be presented:

[Irembo English version]

For Adults:

1. Some sector offices require a document from the Cell office (“Akagari” [administrative authority, subdivision of a sector])

For Children:

1. Letter of guardianship (in case [the] application is submitted by [a] guardian)
2. Immunization card or [h]ospital certificate (if [the] application is submitted by [a] parent)
3. Cell report letter (if [the] birth occurred at home). (Rwanda n.d.b)

The US Department of State indicates the following with respect to Rwandan birth certificates and attestations:

Rwandans can request an attestation de naissance (attestation of birth), valid for 3 months at a time, but the unlimited acte de naissance (birth certificate) is more detailed with an additional layer of certification that goes back and confirms the original sector-level registration. An attestation is equivalent to a birth affidavit in the United States, may be obtained at any time with no supporting documentation or verification of facts, and is often erroneously translated as a birth certificate. (US n.d., italics in original)

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2.1 By Supplemental Judgment

According to the Rwanda Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Comprehensive Assessment Final Report, conducted in 2016 by core Rwandan ministries and international partner organizations (Rwanda Nov. 2016, iv), civil registration in Rwanda is now governed by Law No. 32/2016, which came into force in September 2016 following a review of the earlier Law No. 42/1998 (Rwanda Nov. 2016, 32).

Law No. 42/1988 of 27 October 1988 Instituting the Preliminary Title and First Book of the Civil Code (Loi n° 42/1988 du 27 octobre 1988 portant création du titre préliminaire et livre premier du Code civil) reads as follows:

[translation]

Article 147:

A missing civil status document may be replaced by a judgment rendered on request made by the Public Ministry or by any other interested party to the Court of First Instance [Tribunal de Première Instance] where the certificate should have been drawn up.

If the request was made by someone other than the Public Minister, the Minister must be notified of the request.

The Court shall give any instructions that it considers necessary. It may even issue an order for the questioning of any interested party. That party may intervene voluntarily.

Article 148:

The Court’s judgment, pursuant to the previous article, may be appealed according to common law rules.

Article 149:

The final judgment or decision is provided by the Public Minister to the civil status officer in the place where the recorded event took place. The judgment shall be transcribed in the registers for the current year, recorded in the margins of the register of the year in which the event occurred. (Rwanda 1988)

Similarly, the 2008 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda’s Procedures Guide for Registering Civil Status Events and Producing Civil Status Statistics (Manuel de procédures d’enregistrements des faits d’état civil et de production des statistiques de l’état civil de l’Institut national de la statistique du Rwanda, INSR) indicates that

[translation]

[b]irths and deaths must be declared within 15 days following the birth or the date of death, on presentation, where possible, of a medical certificate … or the appearance of two witnesses above the age of majority. After that time frame has passed, to obtain a birth or death certificate, the interested party must apply to the court, which will render a supplemental judgment for a birth or death certificate, allowing the civil status officer to issue the birth or death certificate. (Rwanda 2008, 14)

Law No. 32/2016 of 28/08/2016 Governing Persons and Family, which came into force in September 2016 and constitutes a review of Law No. 42/1988, provides the following:

[Rwanda English version]

Article 86: Judgment [S]ubstituting a [C]ivil [S]tatus [R]ecord

Except for the birth record drawn up in Rwanda, any civil status record drawn up in Rwanda or in a foreign country that may not be found for any reason is substituted with a judgment rendered, upon application by any interested person, by the court of the place where the requesting person resides or is domiciled. The applicant must submit to the court all possible evidence proving the existence of that record.

The court may order investigations if considered necessary.

Article 87: Registration of a [J]udgment [S]ubstituting a [C]ivil [S]tatus [R]ecord

The operative part of the final judgment substituting a civil status record is submitted to the civil registrar of the domicile of the interested person. Such an operative part is recorded in the current year’s registers and an indication thereof is entered in the margin of the civil status register. (Rwanda 2016)

The instructions for obtaining a birth certificate, which are published on the Irembo portal, include the following note:

[Irembo English version]

In case [a] birth has not been registered within 30 days following the birth, you may approach the civil registrar of the place of [the] child’s birth or of the place of residence or domicile of [the] parents to register the child’s birth. (Rwanda n.d.b)

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a Rwandan lawyer who is a member of the bar association in Kigali and whose areas of practice include family law, indicated that the court requires the following documents to initiate proceedings when applying for a supplemental judgment:

[translation]

• the decision following a request for a supplemental judgment substituting a birth certificate (statement of facts, legal arguments and request);
• proof of payment of legal fees (equivalent to US$30);
• birth certificate [certificat de naissance] issued by the clinic where the child was born, or any other evidence corroborating the circumstances of the child’s birth: place, date of birth, parents, etc.;
• attestation of birth [attestation de naissance] issued by the civil status officer of a local administrative unit, called a sector. (Lawyer 10 Nov. 2017)

However, according to the US Department of State,

[c]ourt-ordered actes de naissance are often dated several years after the birth and are often based on unreliable attestations. Courts require little proof of identity, dates of birth, or parentage in order to issue court judgments permitting the creation of a birth document. (US n.d.)

A copy of a supplemental judgment from the Gisenyi Lower Court (Tribunal de base de Gisenyi), dating from 2012 and replacing a birth certificate, published on the website of the Judiciary of Rwanda, is attached to this Response (Attachment 1).

The website of the Embassy of Rwanda in Paris indicates the following with respect to birth certificates issued based on a supplemental judgment:

[translation]

To legalize the birth certificate issued following a supplemental judgment so it can be used outside of Rwanda, article 12 of Presidential Order No. 02/01 of 28/01/2006 Designating Government Officers to Serve as Notaries, Head Office and Jurisdiction of Notarial Areas (Arrêté Présidentiel n°02/01 du 28/01/2006 portant désignation des [a]gents de l’État pour remplir les fonctions de notaire, le [n]ombre, le siège et le ressort des offices notariaux) states:

The signature of the [d]istrict notary or [s]ector notary affixed to certificates for use abroad must be legalized by the Notary of the National Notarial Office (Office Notarial National).

This notarial service falls under the responsibility of the Rwandan Ministry of Justice. (Rwanda n.d.c., italics in original)

A sample birth certificate dating from 2012, issued following a supplemental judgment, and a sample birth certificate dating from 2011, a certified true copy of the original following a supplemental judgment, which were sent to the Research Directorate by the lawyer, are attached to this Response (Attachments 2 and 3).

3. Appearance and Information Included

English, French and Kinyarwanda copies‎ of a template of a Rwandan birth certificate, as described in Ministerial Order No. 001/07.01 of 23/10/2016 Establishing the Number, Types, Formats and Use of Civil Status Registers (Arrêté ministériel n°001/07.01 du 23/10/2016 déterminant le nombre, les types, les formats et l’utilisation des registres de l’état civil), are attached to this Response (Attachment 4).

Article 118 of Law No. 42/1988 provides the following:

[translation]

The birth certificate indicates:

1. The year, month, day and place of the child’s birth; the child’s sex, ethnicity, surname and given name(s);
2. The surnames, given names, ages, occupations, ethnicities, and places of residence and domicile of the father and mother and, if applicable, of the declarant;
3. The surname and given names of the issuer of the medical certificate produced.

If the child’s father and mother are unknown, this shall be recorded in the register. (Rwanda 1988)

The US Department of State reports the following with regard to naming conventions on Rwandan birth certificates:

Names and surnames are often swapped; surnames in families are virtually never the same; variations in spelling are common; “r’s” and “l’s” are interchangeable; and dates of birth are often unknown, especially for older individuals. Places and dates of birth may also change from passport to the next. (US n.d.)

The same source mentions that the birth certificate is printed “on oversized paper with no security features” (US n.d.). The lawyer stated that “the size of a piece of paper serving as [a] birth certificate is A2 [420 mm x 594 mm (Formatsdepapier.com n.d.)]” (Lawyer 19 Nov. 2017). The lawyer also stated that, to his knowledge, the format and content of birth certificates did not change between 2010 and 2017 (Lawyer 10 Nov. 2017). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Formatsdepapier.com. N.d. “Dimensions des formats de papier de la série A.” [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017]

Lawyer. 19 November 2017. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Lawyer. 10 November 2017. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Rwanda. November 2016. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda et al. Rwanda Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Comprehensive Assessment Final Report Volume I. [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. 2016. Loi n° 32/2016 du 28/08/2016 régissant les personnes et la famille. [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. 2008. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). Manuel de procédures d’enregistrements des faits d’état civil et de production des statistiques de l’état civil. [Accessed 22 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. 1988. Loi n°42/1988 du 27 octobre 1988 portant création du titre préliminaire et livre premier du Code civil. [Accessed 22 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. N.d.a. Irembo. “Enregistrement d’une naissance.” [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. N.d.b. Irembo. “Acte de naissance.” [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017]

Rwanda. N.d.c. Embassy of Rwanda in Paris. “Attestations et autres documents administratifs.” [Accessed 8 Nov. 2017]

United States (US). N.d. Department of State. “Rwanda Reciprocity Schedule.” [Accessed 8 Nov. 2017]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Rwanda – High Commission in Canada, civil status officer.

Internet sites, including: ecoi.net; Factiva; Rwanda – Business Procedures, High Commission in Canada, Ministry of Justice, National Identification Agency, National Institute of Statistics; UN – Refworld.

Attachments

1. Rwanda. 2012. Tribunal de base de Gisenyi. “Affaire RC 1120/011/TB/GIS.” [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017]
2. Rwanda. 2012. Civil status office of Ibiro By’Irangamimerere. “Acte de naissance.” Sent to the Research Directorate by a lawyer, 10 November 2017.
3. Rwanda. 2011. Civil status office of Ibiro By’Irangamimerere. “Acte de naissance.” Sent to the Research Directorate by a lawyer, 10 November 2017.
4. Rwanda. 2016. “Annexe I.” Arrêté ministériel n°001/07.01 du 23/10/2016 déterminant le nombre, les types, les formats et l'utilisation des registres de l'état civil. [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017]