RWANDA – On 16 September 2026, the Inaugural Kigali Arbitration Week opened at the Serena Hotel in Kigali. The Chandler Institute of Justice (CIJ) and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) Rwanda Branch hosted an exclusive training for judges and court registrars from across Rwanda. The session brought together the Honourable Chief Justice, the Honourable Chief Registrar, and distinguished judges and registrars. Colleagues from CIArb Rwanda and fellow partners joined them. The training focused on one question: the role of courts in supporting arbitration.

Building on a Shared Foundation

The training did not stand alone. It built on a partnership between CIJ and CIArb Rwanda that began in June 2026, when the two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding. That agreement launched the Corporate and Financial Sector Legal Capacity Building Programme, delivered alongside the Kigali International Finance Centre (KIFC). CIJ's Legal Consultant Martina Gasana, delivering the opening remarks, told the room that the programme rested on a simple premise: a credible, well-supported judiciary underpins investor confidence. It underpins commercial certainty. And it underpins Rwanda's ambitions as a regional arbitration hub. Kigali Arbitration Week, she said, was a continuation of that same work.

Where Arbitration Is Made Real

The day's training turned on the relationship between courts and arbitral tribunals. Courts and tribunals are connected at every stage: through referral, through interim measures, and through enforcement. That relationship, Gasana told participants, is where the promise of arbitration is either made real or quietly undermined. The judges and registrars in the room carried that responsibility forward. Their work would decide, in practice, whether arbitration functions for parties doing business in and with Rwanda.

This training was the first engagement of the week. CIJ is sponsoring the Inaugural Kigali Arbitration Week in full. That includes the East Africa International Arbitration Conference, taking place on Thursday and Friday. Arbitrators, practitioners, and policymakers will gather there to discuss the future of arbitration across East Africa.

Why This Matters

Courts and arbitration are too often treated as separate systems. One is for litigation. The other is for private dispute resolution. Kigali Arbitration Week begins from a different premise: the two are bound together. Rwanda's ambitions as a regional arbitration and financial hub depend on strengthening both.

Our sincere gratitude to CIArb Rwanda, the Judiciary of Rwanda, and all our partners for welcoming CIJ to Kigali Arbitration Week. We look forward to a week of rich discussion, learning, and partnership.

A courtroom and an arbitral tribunal are not rivals. They are partners in resolving the same dispute. Rwanda's ambitions as a regional hub depend on both being equal to the task.