Mediation, conciliation and Abunzi: court-annexed mediation under the Supreme Court's Instructions N° 001/2019, conciliation at the pre-trial conference, binding conciliation under Law N° 005/2008, enforceable out-of-court settlements, mandatory pre-action steps, the Abunzi Committees and why companies cannot use them, the National ADR Policy and the unratified Singapore Convention

Why mediation matters in Rwanda

Amicable settlement is not a side door in the Rwandan system; it is built into court procedure, into the Abunzi Committees that handle most small civil disputes, and into Government policy. The Ministry of Justice (MINIJUST) launched a National Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Policy in September 2022 and published an ADR Strategic Plan 2025-2030, which reports 12,246 cases resolved by mediation in the courts (1,445 of them at registrars' pre-trial conferences and 950 by judges) and 24,647 disputes, 99.5% of those handled, resolved by Abunzi. The same plan records a court backlog of 62% in 2023/24 and 59% in 2024/25 and sets a target of 25% by 2029/30; a December 2025 press report put the backlog at 49%, a figure not reconciled with the plan's. One output of the plan, starting in 2025/26, is to 'draft and enact the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) law'.

For an investor, three consequences follow. First, a Rwandan court will offer mediation or conciliation early in almost every commercial case, and parties are expected to engage with it. Second, a settlement reached in a court-supervised process or in statutory conciliation is directly enforceable through the bailiff system, without a new action. Third, a contractual mediation or negotiation step is enforced strictly: a claim filed without proof that the step was taken will not even be registered. The rest of this section covers each route, the Abunzi Committees, the position for cross-border settlements and how to draft a tiered clause that works in Rwanda. Court procedure generally is in Commercial litigation step by step.

Court-annexed mediation under Instructions N° 001/2019

Court mediation is governed by Instructions N° 001/2019 of 05/12/2019 of the President of the Supreme Court governing court mediation in civil, commercial, labour and administrative cases, published in the Official Gazette n° Special of 17/01/2020. Mediation may be requested by a party when the case is filed, or proposed by the registrar at the pre-trial conference. Three kinds of mediator are used: the court registrar, a judge-mediator, or an accredited private mediator. Private mediators must have completed certifying training approved by the Judiciary (Article 8), and a private mediator's mission 'shall not exceed one month' (Articles 27 to 29 and 32). The one-month limit is short by international standards; parties who want a longer process should agree it before the case is filed or use a purely private mediation.

Confidentiality is statutory. Communications made in the mediation are confidential and cannot be used as evidence in the proceedings (Articles 5 and 6), which allows a party to make a without-prejudice offer without weakening its pleaded case. A judge who acted as mediator may not then try the case (Article 30), so a failed mediation does not taint the trial bench.

If the parties settle, the settlement is recorded and becomes an order of the court bearing the enforcement formula; the points agreed are not re-examined (Article 30). The settlement can then be executed by a bailiff like a judgment (Enforcing judgments and foreign judgments). If the mediation fails on some points, the case continues on those points only, which can narrow a commercial dispute considerably. The Judiciary describes court mediation on its 'alternatives to trial' page.

Conciliation at the pre-trial conference

Separately from mediation, every ordinary case passes through a pre-trial conference (inama ntegurarubanza) conducted by the registrar under Articles 24 to 30 of Law No 22/2018 of 29/04/2018 relating to the civil, commercial, labour and administrative procedure, as amended by Law N° 025/2021 of 12/05/2021 and Law Nº 007/2023 of 22/01/2024. The conference is compulsory except in summary cases. The registrar circulates a draft report identifying the issues and the evidence, and the parties attend within 15 days of receiving it. At the conference the registrar offers conciliation. If the parties agree, the registrar's conciliation decision is 'not subject to appeal' and bears the enforcement formula (Article 29).

The practical point for a foreign party is preparation. The conference is the first moment at which the registrar tests whether the dispute can be settled, and the ADR Strategic Plan counts 1,445 cases settled at registrars' pre-trial conferences. A party whose representative arrives without authority to settle loses the opportunity, and a party that ignores the conference risks the sanctions for delay in Article 18 of Law No 22/2018: fines of RWF 20,000 to RWF 200,000 for a party and RWF 200,000 to RWF 500,000 for counsel. The language of the court is Kinyarwanda, although the court may sit in another official language, a party may plead in another language through its own interpreter and written submissions to the court are in Kinyarwanda (Article 69), so authority to settle and any draft terms should be ready in a form that can be translated quickly.

Private mediation and statutory conciliation

Parties may also mediate or conciliate outside the courts. Law N° 005/2008 of 14/02/2008 on arbitration and conciliation in commercial matters contains a conciliation chapter alongside its arbitration rules. Conciliation proceedings are confidential (Article 58), and a settlement reached in conciliation 'shall be binding and may be forcefully enforced' (Article 63). Law No 22/2018 goes further for mediation generally: an out-of-court mediated agreement is listed among the enforcement orders in Article 241(7), alongside judgments and arbitral awards (Article 241(3)). An enforcement order is executed once it bears the enforcement formula (Article 242), through the voluntary and compulsory phases described in Enforcing judgments and foreign judgments.

The settlement agreement should therefore be drafted as an enforceable instrument from the start: identify the parties fully, state each obligation with an amount and date, provide for acceleration on default, record that it results from mediation or conciliation, and be signed by persons with proven authority. Where the obligations are large or secured on land, the parties may also have the agreement authenticated by a notary so that its execution and the signatories' authority cannot later be disputed.

The Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC), established by Law N° 51/2010 of 10/01/2010, is the institution most investors will meet. Its statutory mandate is framed around arbitration ('the only competent agency for arbitration on matters related to trade in Rwanda', Article 5). Whether, and under which rules, it currently administers mediation could not be verified for this guide, because its website was not accessible. Law N° 51/2010 does allow KIAC to provide a forum for alternative dispute resolution and to use mediation or conciliation with the parties' agreement before or during an arbitration (Articles 4 and 17), but its current mediation rules, fees and mediator panel were not checked; a party choosing KIAC mediation should obtain the rules in force from the Centre and attach them to the clause or settlement protocol (Arbitration law and KIAC).

When an amicable-settlement step is compulsory

Article 21 of Law No 22/2018 lists the grounds on which the registrar refuses to register a claim. Three concern settlement. The registrar refuses a claim where the matter must first be heard by an Abunzi Committee (Article 21(16)); where a law requires amicable settlement and there is no proof that it was attempted and failed (Article 21(17)); where the claimant does not show that it used the amicable settlement or arbitration specified in the contract (Article 21(18)); and where the matter has already been resolved through arbitration on the merits (Article 21(19)). Refusal is not a judgment on the merits, but it costs time and, where a limitation period is close, can be fatal.

The Supreme Court applies contractual tiers strictly. In Cheon Kwang v Government of Rwanda (Ministry of Agriculture), decided on 30 June 2017, it enforced a pre-arbitration step agreed in the contract. The reverse also holds: a party that litigates without objecting to the forum may be treated as having waived its arbitration agreement, as the Court of Appeal held in Mukeramirimo Construction v Quality Construction (RCOMAA 00107/2022/CA, 25 May 2023). The lesson is to document each step: the date the notice of dispute was served, the meetings held, the mediator's appointment and the date of the mediator's report or of the failure of talks.

Statute adds further compulsory steps. A taxpayer must appeal to the Commissioner General of the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) before going to court, and may then request amicable settlement under Commissioner General Directives Nº 002/2024 of 22/10/2024 (Tax administration, audits and disputes). A person challenging an administrative decision must first make an informal appeal to the superior authority under Article 178 of Law No 22/2018 (Regulatory, tax and public-law disputes). An individual employment dispute goes first to the employee representatives and the labour inspector, and a court may refuse a case that skipped conciliation (Workplace rules, unions and labour disputes). A dispute between an investor and a State organ over a registered investment is to be settled amicably first, with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) facilitating (Articles 13 and 16(4) of Law N° 006/2021 of 05/02/2021 on Investment Promotion and Facilitation; Investor-State disputes and treaty protection).

The Abunzi Committees and their limits

Abunzi (mediators) are elected community members who sit in committees at Cell and Sector level. Their jurisdiction is set by Law No 37/2016 of 08/09/2016 determining organisation, jurisdiction, competence and functioning of an Abunzi Committee, as amended by Law Nº 020/2020 of 19/11/2020, which changed the committees' composition and set a five-year term. A Cell committee decides civil disputes over assets and succession and 'a breach of contract between individuals' where the value does not exceed RWF 3,000,000 (Article 10). A party dissatisfied with a Cell decision appeals to the Sector committee within 30 days, and from the Sector committee to the Primary Court within 30 days (Articles 25 and 27).

The key point for investors is Article 11: 'In no way, may disputes involving the State, its organs or associations and companies with legal personality … be referred to an Abunzi Committee'. A company, whether Rwandan or foreign-owned, can therefore never be a party before Abunzi, and the Abunzi-first rule does not stand between a company and the courts. Disputes of companies worth up to RWF 5,000,000 go instead to the Primary Courts under the small-claims procedure, with no pre-trial conference and no appeal (Commercial litigation step by step). Abunzi matter to investors indirectly: an investor who operates as an individual trader, or whose staff, landlord or neighbours have small disputes among themselves, will meet the system, and claims between individuals within the ceiling must start there.

The ceiling may change. A December 2025 press report described a proposal to raise the Abunzi ceiling to RWF 5,000,000 in 2026; no amending law had been published in the Official Gazette at 10 October 2026, so the RWF 3,000,000 limit in Article 10 still applies.

Cross-border settlements and the Singapore Convention

The United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Convention) allows a commercial settlement reached in mediation to be enforced directly in states that have ratified it. Rwanda signed it on 28 January 2020, but the UNCITRAL status table did not record a ratification at 10 October 2026. The Rwanda Law Reform Commission reviewed a draft law approving ratification in 2024/25. Until ratification takes effect, a settlement signed abroad, or signed in Rwanda between a Rwandan company and a foreign counterparty, has no Convention route to enforcement in Rwanda.

There are workable alternatives. A settlement of a pending Rwandan case can be recorded as a court order under the court-mediation Instructions. A settlement reached in conciliation under Law N° 005/2008, or in mediation, can be enforced as an enforcement order under Article 241(7) of Law No 22/2018 once it bears the enforcement formula. Where the parties are already in arbitration, they can ask the tribunal to record the settlement as an award if the applicable rules allow it, and the award is then enforceable in Rwanda and in other New York Convention states (Foreign arbitration and enforcing awards). A settlement governed by foreign law and signed abroad, with no court or arbitral wrapper, is enforced by suing on it as a contract, which restarts the process the settlement was meant to end.

Drafting a tiered dispute clause that works in Rwanda

A multi-tier clause (negotiation, then mediation, then arbitration or the courts) is common in Rwandan commercial contracts and is enforced, so it must be precise. State who may trigger each tier and how (a written notice of dispute to a named address); fix the length of each tier in days from a verifiable event, for example 30 days of negotiation from the notice and 45 days of mediation from the mediator's appointment; name the mediation rules or institution and the appointing authority if the parties cannot agree on a mediator; and provide that either party may proceed to the next tier once the period expires, whether or not the other has participated. Without an expiry, a reluctant counterparty can argue that the condition precedent was never satisfied.

Carve out urgent relief. Rwandan courts grant interim measures through the summary procedure, ex parte provisional measures and commercial seizure, and Article 11 of Law N° 005/2008 allows court interim measures in support of arbitration; a tiered clause should state that nothing prevents a party from seeking such measures at any time. Finally, align the language: mediation in English or French is possible by agreement, but anything filed with a court will need a Kinyarwanda version. The general rules on dispute clauses and governing law are discussed in Commercial contracts in Rwanda.

Using court-annexed mediation in a commercial case

1. Decide at filingAsk for mediation in the claim or the defence if settlement is realistic; otherwise expect the registrar to propose it at the pre-trial conference.
2. Choose the mediatorAgree on the registrar, a judge-mediator or an accredited private mediator; check that a private mediator holds Judiciary-approved certification (Article 8).
3. Prepare authority and figuresBring a representative with written authority to settle, a settlement range approved by head office and the documents needed to support it, translated where necessary.
4. Use confidentialityMake offers knowing that statements in mediation are confidential and inadmissible as evidence (Articles 5 and 6).
5. Keep within the monthA private mediator's mission ends after one month; plan sessions and internal approvals around that limit.
6. Record the settlementDraft terms with amounts, dates, default and acceleration, and have them recorded as a court order bearing the enforcement formula (Article 30).
7. Continue or enforceIf settlement is partial, the case continues on the remaining points; if the other party defaults, instruct a bailiff to execute the order.