The Minister said this on Sunday 23^rd September, 2018 on a talk show which was aired on Rwanda Television and Radio Rwanda in chorus. The show which featured the Rwanda’s General Prosecutor Jean Bosco Mutangana and the Secretary General of Rwanda Investigation Bureau Colonel Ruhunga Jeanot highlighted joint measures to tackle issues around Gender Based Violence and child defilement on Rwandan territory. Minister Nyirasafari Espérance said: ‘I want to accentuate that it is STRICTLY a taboo to have sexual intercourse with children under 18 years, even if you say that it was a mutual pact. I want to remind the audience that there shouldn’t be any agreement whatsoever with a teenage regarding sexual intercourse. We want the public to know that teenagers need protection.’ Minister Nyirasafari added that hotel and lodges’ owners should always ask for IDs to teenagers who are unattended because evidence has shown that some adults take teens in hotels and lodges to have sexual intercourse. The General Prosecutor Jean Bosco Mutangana said that the prosecution seeks to detain GBV and child defilement suspects while waiting for trials. ‘Defiling a child under 18, is a taboo. I want to insinuate that we (the prosecution) won’t tolerate such crimes. Something need to change so that people see efforts made by the prosecution including pre-trial detention. The court can normally release a suspect who waits for a trial but for child defilement and GBV perpetrators, we will lock them up. When we remove these perpetrators from the society, we reduce the danger they may cause. They belong to jail not in the society.’-Said the General Prosecutor He added that one of the challenges in tackling GBV and child defilement cases is that people don’t report it on time which results in lacking evidence hence requesting the general public to partner with different actors in giving justice to victims. The Secretary General of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau Colonel Ruhunga Jeanot said that the institution has advanced efforts in investigating GBV and child defilement cases including working with different actors, enhancing investigators’ skills, providing free tolls for reporting GBV and child defilement cases. Other efforts include the setting up of Isange One Stop Center which gives all-inclusive services to GBV and child defilement victims. These services include medical, justice, psychological counseling and are available at all district hospital across the country and are given at gratis. Callers who contributed to the show raised concerns that some local leaders who don’t speed up the process of handling GBV and child defilement cases. Munyemana Desire from Gakenke district said: ‘Some local leaders at village level, sometimes call for perpetrators of child defilement to negotiate with their families so that they agree with the victim’s family on how the teen mother will be facilitated.’ Commenting on this issues, Minister Nyirasafari warned local leaders to speed up the process to handle cases of Gender based violence.