Make Your Victory Call to Kagame a Call for Victoire

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is a Rwandan opposition leader who has been persecuted by President Paul Kagame’s regime for more than a decade. The Rwandan government’s punishment of Victoire has taken many forms over the past 14 years. She was arrested and convicted after a trial that was internationally condemned as being politically motivated and grossly unfair, with the African Court of Human and People’s Rights ruling that the government had violated her right to freedom of expression. Nevertheless, she was detained in prison for 8 years, including 5 years in solitary confinement. Having been released following a pardon from President Kagame in 2018, Victoire now lives in an open-air prison: stripped of all civil and political rights, effectively a captive in Rwanda, unable to leave. In an act of particular cruelty, her inability to leave the country has kept her from participating in her children’s weddings, the births of grandchildren, and from being with her husband during his final days.   

Presidential elections will take place in Rwanda on July 15, 2024, and it is all but certain that President Kagame will proclaim a landslide victory. When he does, he will undoubtedly receive congratulatory calls from many heads of state. The Lantos Foundation is pleased to join a global solidarity humanitarian appeal, led by African civic and democratic groups, to call on world leaders to ensure that their “victory call” to Kagame includes a “call for Victoire” – that they urge President Kagame to allow her to visit her family and gravely ill husband in Europe.

The international community must stand with Victoire and demand the restoration of her human rights, first and foremost her right to be with her family. Through this letter, these groups hope to draw attention to the persecution she has faced and to prompt governments with influence in Kigali to put pressure on President Kagame to do the right thing and give Victoire permission to travel to her family.

Read the full text of the open letter (English and French) below. We encourage you to share the letter using the hashtag #CallKagameforVictoire.

Please contact info@lantosfoundation.org with questions.