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National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter 3547 Cedar Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55407
Punishing Protest: A 2007 NLG Report
This report examines a hierarchy of government threats to the exercise of political speech, from applying the label “terrorist” to certain activists, to creating legislation targeting specific groups, to continuing to use aggressive, and often unconstitutional, police tactics that intimidate individuals from expressing views unpopular to the government. To order or download a copy of this report, click the image above.
Genocide Ideology Law Used to Suppress Dissent in Rwanda
Although being prosecuted in Rwanda as a "Genocide Denier," Peter Erlinder is a defender of human rights who has explicitly recognized the horrible massacres and widespread killing in Rwanda. The article below explains how the use of the law in Rwanda against Erlinder fits with a pattern of suppression of debate and political opposition by the Kagame government:
Yet to properly understand the context of the Genocide Ideology Law, it is also important to understand the significance of the so-called "campaign against genocide ideology" that has recently been launched in Rwanda. Reports of authoritative media and human rights non-governmental organisations indicate that the legacy of genocide is being manipulated by the Rwandan government to suppress political dissent and opposition in a range of ways. Most significantly, this has been done through cases involving the crime of genocide ideology. According to available information, about 1,300 such cases were initiated in the Rwandan courts in the 2007-2008 judicial year, even before it was defined by the Genocide Ideology Law itself.11 Rwandan authorities have used prosecution, or the threat of prosecution under the law to trample opposition, including calls for justice for war crimes committed by the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). A range of Rwandan and foreign individuals and media organisations have been denounced as actual or potential violators of the Genocide Ideology Law.12 Most notoriously the BBC's local language radio service was suspended in the country following the station's feature of its weekly of a programme that was to include a debate on forgiveness among Rwandans after the genocide.13 Moreover, teachers and pupils at schools have been directly warned by prominent political figures that children "found guilty of harbouring the genocide ideology [can] be denied admission in any school in the country . [and] also be prosecuted in the courts of law when he or she turns the prescribed age".14 Such reliance on the Genocide Ideology Law in itself has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression, from political to juvenile speech. Furthermore, this Law comes in the context of a broader crackdown on the media organizations. Individual journalists are being imprisoned without any legitimate cause15 and media organisations have been targeted with suspension for activities such as comparing the current government to that which was in power in the run-up to the genocide in 1994.Full text at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/analysis/rwanda-comment-on-the-law-relatin...By Article IXX, Global Campaign for Free Expression
This report examines a hierarchy of government threats to the exercise of political speech, from applying the label “terrorist” to certain activists, to creating legislation targeting specific groups, to continuing to use aggressive, and often unconstitutional, police tactics that intimidate individuals from expressing views unpopular to the government. To order or download a copy of this report, click the image above. 
