Since the 1994 Genocide, Rwanda has undergone significant political and legal reforms that have been highly influenced by its colonial and postcolonial history. The now multi party semi presidential constitutional republic follows a civil law system that has its roots in the Belgian, and to an extent, the German civil law system, that has been moulded by Rwanda's own political and legal history. Currently, the Constitution is the supreme law in Rwanda, which was adopted on the 26th May 2003, containing major legislative and judicial reforms. .
Prior to WW1, Rwanda was a German colony, but upon German invasion of Belgium during the war, the Belgians retaliated by invading and seizing control over Rwanda in 1914. At the conclusion of the war, the League of Nations affirmed the existing state of affairs and Rwanda became an official Belgian colony. During this period of colonialisation, Belgian Authorities made all legislation governing the country, following their own civil and criminal codes. The criminal Law had universal application, however written civil law was only for whites, while customary law applied to the natives. .
The separation based on ethnicity is ultimately a provoking factor that lead to the violence that escalated in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis, where the Tutsis were favored incredibly. In 1960 elections, the Hutus scored an overwhelming majority in Government and soon in 1962 after pressure from the UN Rwanda federated and became an independent republic. This did not last long, when in 1973 a military coup removed all aspects of democracy and replaced itself with Habyarimana, a military general who remained in power for 21 years. He helped to incite and provoke the ethnicity based violence, promoting Hutu extremism until it eventually escalated into the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, where 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered between April and July that year. .
The 1990's in Rwanda were then spent delivering Justice and trialling the 130,000 of those accused of Genocide Responsibility.
