Consideration of the best interest of the child in divorce proceedings under Rwandan family law: Case law analysis

Abstract

This paperexplores unpredictability and inconsistencies of divorce case laws with regard to the implementation of the child best interest. The best interest of thechild is a legal standard which remains unspecified despite the fact that it is recognized in International and domestic laws. Decision-makers including judges are required to give a paramount consideration to the best interest of the child in their decision-making process. Practically, judges use their discretion to determine what isin thechild’s best interest in thechild’s custody,support, and visitation right arrangements in divorce cases given that no guidelines were set up to ease their task. This paper outlines international conventions and domestic laws providing the best interest of the child asa legal norm and analyses case law in order to materialize the reality of the issue in relation to courts’ practices in interpretingthe best interest of the child. Most of case laws explored are characterized by lack of motivation of facts; unfairness in determination of child support, lack of determination of conditions and modalities of visitation right. This explains unpredictability of Courts’ decisions with regard to child best interest.Thus,clear and fair guiding factors need to be established in order to promote individual child welfare balanced with interest of others in the family.