Kigali, 24 August 2021:  Minister of Education attended the 9^th graduation of the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD) held their 9th graduation, where she acted as Chancellor and conferred Post Graduate diplomas in Legal Practice.

In the blended event at Marriot Hotel, some guests attended physically, while others participated remotely to observe COVID-19 prevention measures whereby a total of 254 graduates from 10 African countries were conferred post graduate diploma in legal practice. These countries include Rwanda, Cameroon, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, South Sudan, Kenya, Burundi and Gambia.

 “The time these graduates spent learning made them understand the challenges the society face and how they can solve them, we believe that graduates, now Legal Professionals are ready to practice and we urge them to always use skills acquired to advance judicial values and we hope that they are going to comprehensively contribute to the development of judiciary towards finding equitable solutions to the Rwandan problems.”

The establishment of this Institute was part of the implementation of the judicial reforms that the Government of Rwanda embarked on in 2004. To meet the demand for a legal workforce with enhanced skills, ILPD was assigned the task of providing the relevant training.

The Institute is located in Kigali and Nyanza District, Southern Province. ILPD is more than eight years old, with many hundreds of lawyers, judges and prosecutors have attended its courses. It runs two major postgraduate Diplomas; on Legal practice (DLP) for judges, prosecutors and lawyers, and on Legislative Drafting (DLD) for government lawyers and others responsible for drafting.

ILPD is now attracting African continent attention with its innovative approaches to training and reputation for effective, high quality courses. Students from other countries   are now discovering and attending its courses and ILPD aspires to meet the needs of legal professionals throughout Africa.

ILPD’s objective is to become an ‘‘IHURIRO’’, i.e. a meeting place for legal professionals from Rwanda, the region, and Africa, as well as the rest of the world. ILPD is active in organizations that link the East African judicial training institutes. It is also a member of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT), a global body linking judicial training institutes around the world. ILPD is also a meeting place where different branches of the legal profession, different legal traditions (Common law, Civilian and traditional) can meet and learn from each other.

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