Parliament has beneficial that the Ministry of Nationwide Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE) revise the 2015 Nationwide Cultural Heritage Coverage inside 12 months to make sure it displays technological advances, digital transformation and evolving cultural realities.
The advice was made on Thursday, July 2, because the Parliamentary Committee on Schooling, Know-how, Tradition, Sports activities and Youth introduced its report on the implementation of the coverage.
ALSO READ: Rwandans’ consciousness of cultural heritage stands at 76% – Survey
This committee mentioned the coverage requires updating to reply to altering patterns in improvement, know-how and cultural interplay. The committee famous that the coverage had helped make varied achievements since 2025.
Presenting the committee's findings, MP Emma Rubagumya Furaha, the Committee Chairperson, mentioned the implementation of the coverage has strengthened efforts to protect Kinyarwanda by increasing its vocabulary to maintain tempo with developments in several sectors.
ALSO READ: Inside Rwanda’s 20 newly categorised cultural heritage websites
“With the intention to enrich Kinyarwanda and align it with improvement, there have been dictionaries developed in several professions, together with the 2026 ICT Dictionary, the 2024 Financial system and Finance Dictionary, the 2024 Dictionary of Literature in Kinyarwanda, the 2020 Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Dictionary, the 2019 Biology Dictionary, the 2022 Airport Indicators Dictionary and the 2023 Meteorology Dictionary,” she mentioned.
Rubagumya mentioned these initiatives have helped protect the language, though its on a regular basis use stays a priority.
ALSO READ: Rwanda’s cultural heritage ‘large and untapped’
“An evaluation confirmed that 94.1 per cent of Rwandans point out that Kinyarwanda is the hyperlink of their unity. Nonetheless, 70.6 per cent point out that the language is just not correctly used,” she mentioned.
The committee additionally discovered that implementation of the coverage has contributed to analysis that paperwork Rwanda's historical past, improved the instructing, talking and writing of Kinyarwanda, and strengthened preservation of the historical past of the Genocide in opposition to the Tutsi.
It additional cited progress in combating genocide ideology and denial, in addition to the conservation of Genocide memorials, noting that 4 memorial websites have been recognised by UNESCO.
Nonetheless, the committee signifies that advancemennts in know-how, improvement and interactions between tradition and language make it essential to revise the coverage.
It additionally referred to as for larger efforts to move cultural values from older to youthful generations by selling correct use of Kinyarwanda in residence settings, colleges and workplaces, strengthening studying and writing tradition, and serving to younger folks distinguish between helpful influences from different cultures and practices that would undermine Rwandan cultural values.
The home committee additional beneficial bettering cultural and historic heritage websites via infrastructure improvement to reinforce their function in selling Rwanda's heritage nationally and internationally whereas attracting funding.
It additionally urged authorities to strengthen safety of cultural creations by registering them and securing worldwide mental property rights, organise annual festivals to advertise cultural creativity and community-based tourism, and preserve indigenous bushes and vegetation utilized in cultural actions, together with Ficus thonningii (umuvumu), Erythrina abyssinica (umuko), Markhamia lutea (umusave) and Agave sisalana (umugwegwe).
On the artistic trade, the committee welcomed the enactment of the 2024 Mental Property Regulation and the ministerial order on the gathering and distribution of royalties authorized by Cupboard in March.
“There’s a want to ascertain mechanisms for collective administration of royalties,” the committee famous.
The report additionally recognized gaps in archives administration regardless of the institution of a nationwide archive and library, citing shortages of expert personnel, insufficient archive amenities in some public establishments and restricted digital archiving techniques.
