ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Rwanda. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Rwanda. Rwandans have never enjoyed their right to democratically choose their government. The government announced in 1999 that national multiparty elections would not take place until 2003 at the earliest. Rwanda's basic governance charter is the Fundamental Law, an amalgam of the 1991 constitution, two agreements among various parties and groups, and the Rwandan Patriotic Front own 1994 declaration of governance. Rwanda has appointed a legal reform commission to examine all existing laws in the country as part of ongoing preparation for the end of the transition period in 2003.
