Genocide Memorial Day

Genocide against the Tutsi Memorial Day marks the opening of the organised extermination campaign in April 1994. After President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on April 6, leaders of the interim government, armed forces, Presidential Guard, gendarmerie and Interahamwe implemented prepared anti-Tutsi violence through roadblocks, lists, local administration and propaganda; Tutsi were targeted for destruction, while Hutu and others who opposed the genocide were also murdered.

Over roughly one hundred days, mass killing and genocidal sexual violence devastated the country as international actors failed to stop it. The genocide occurred during a civil war, but that context does not make responsibility for the planned extermination symmetrical. Kwibuka centres victims, survivors, evidence and prevention; it is not an occasion to relativise genocide through unrelated political grievances.

Presidential Order No. 062/01 of 2022 applies the official calendar to public- and private-sector employers and employees. Except for April 7, a holiday on Saturday or Sunday makes the following working day a public holiday; two consecutive weekend holidays are compensated by only one working day, and coinciding holidays receive one following working day. The calendar records the original date and, where applicable, the separate observed date.