ABSTRACT
Women have played an increasingly important role in Rwandese politics since the 1994 genocide left a majority female population in its wake and also politicized domestic violence against women. This chapter considers the politics behind policy adoption and implementation of domestic violence policy in Rwanda, focusing on the Prevention and Punishment of Gender-Based Violence (2008) law. As in Uganda, the dominant-party character of the regime has meant that policy-making is heavily shaped by presidential interests and ideas, although in this case, the president appears to have a genuine ideological commitment to promoting women's rights. This chapter charts how this commitment, alongside the incentives of achieving political legitimacy, accessing international finance, and a large bloc of female parliamentarians, helped place gender-based violence legislation firmly on the political agenda and how the dominant political settlement has helped drive implementation forward. Rwanda's technocratic machine and gender-mainstreaming apparatus ensured vigorous implementation of the law.
