HRF Defends Rwandan Opposition Leader Victoire Ingabire Before the UN

NEW YORK (Nov. 25, 2025) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Freedom Now, and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice submitted a joint complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of detained Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire.

On June 19, 2025, agents from the Rwandan Investigation Bureau arrested Ingabire in her home in Kigali, Rwanda, without presenting an arrest warrant. 

Earlier that day, Ingabire had appeared before the Rwandan High Court as a witness in the trial concerning eight members of her party, Development and Liberty for All (DALFA-Umurinzi), and an independent journalist. The nine defendants have been detained since 2021 on charges of forming a criminal organization and spreading false information for attending an online training on nonviolent resistance. After Ingabire’s testimony, in total disregard of her presumption of innocence and a 2024 WGAD decision condemning the imprisonment of the other nine detainees, the High Court ordered an investigation into Ingabire’s alleged role in the training. 

The prosecution is requesting a life sentence for Ingabire for allegedly establishing or joining a criminal organization, inciting public unrest, undermining the authority of the government, spreading false information to discredit Rwanda abroad, conspiring to incite public disorder, and conspiring to organize a demonstration.

“Judges have treated Ingabire as though she were guilty from the onset of her pretrial detention. There is little indication that this will change, as the judges who ordered the investigation will be the ones presiding over her trial,” said HRF Senior Legal Associate Venla Stang. “We are determined to ensure that her appalling treatment by the Rwandan judiciary is exposed and condemned globally.”

A tireless opposition figure, Ingabire has been subjected to heavy repression at the hands of Paul Kagame’s regime for years. In 2010, she was arrested upon her return to Rwanda after leading an opposition coalition in exile. She was imprisoned for nearly eight years for genocide denial and conspiring against the country through terrorism and war, charges which human rights experts condemned as politically motivated. In 2018, she received a presidential pardon after winning her case before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Despite her release, Ingabire has not been allowed to register her party and was barred from running in Rwanda’s 2024 presidential elections.

“Kagame has repeatedly threatened to jail my mother again, starting just four days after she walked free from her first eight-year imprisonment. Those threats have now become a reality, and she is back in prison, not because she has done anything wrong, but because he has decided she must be silenced,” Ingabire’s son, Rémy Amahirwa, said.

Ingabire’s latest arrest marks yet another episode in the Rwandan regime’s systematic persecution of political opponents. HRF calls on the WGAD to investigate Ingabire’s case, determine that her detention is arbitrary, and demand her immediate release.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

Supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.