Bernadette Uwicyeza is an ADR Advisor to the Judiciary of Rwanda. She assisted the judiciary in the design and implementation of a court mediation scheme well integrated into the existing court system. She organizes and facilitates mediation skills training for judges, registrars and members of the Bar association. She also prepared Mediation Practice Directions to guide the practice in courts and contributed to the review of the civil procedure code enacted in 2018 in order to introduce a mediation referral mechanism in all civil matters. In January 2019, under the Centre for International Legal Cooperation (Netherlands) she prepared a comprehensive draft Mediation Bill under consideration. She is now an ADR expert on the project of an ADR policy undertaken by the Ministry of Justice.
Bernadette is the founding Secretary General of the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) established in 2012. In 2015, she stepped down from her managerial position to focus on mediation practice development in Rwanda. Prior to joining KIAC, Bernadette worked as Legal consultant to the Ministry of East African Affairs under the Trade Mark East African Project to support regional integration, providing strategic legal inputs to the country position in negotiations for regional integration. She also served as Legal Consultant to the Ministry of Justice under the World Bank Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project. Bernadette is also a lecturer in different Schools of law in Rwanda, such as University of Rwanda, University of Kigali (UoK), Kigali Independent University (ULK), and Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD).
Bernadette holds a Law degree in private law and a D.E.A Droit communautaire (equivalent Master’s in European Union Law) from the University of Rennes I in France, Centre for European Union Law Studies. She is on the ICSID Panel of arbitrators, CEDR Accredited Mediator, and Member of the Weinstein International Foundation.
Bernadette is a native speaker of Kinyarwanda and is fluent in English and French.
