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Rwanda as a member of the United Nations is required to defend its Human Rights record as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and it is particularly expected to give an update on the recommendations made in the previous review. In November it will appear before the Human Rights Council and as a matter of principle will be evaluated on the previous human rights undertaking.

According the Rwanda Minister of Justice and Attorney General Mr. Busingye Johnston much progress has been made since 2011, when Rwanda accepted to implement 67 UNHRC recommendations relating to human rights practices in the country.

“Today, we are happy to be at over 80 per cent of implementation of the recommendations. We don’t count the UPR process as simply a submission of report or as implementation of recommendation; we count it as something which Rwandans need, a public good for Rwandans, so when we are doing this, we are not looking at satisfying anyone in Geneva,” said Busingye referring to the headquarters of UNHRC

Busingye misleading and elusive

“Twelve of them are in the process; among these include nine that will be fully implemented by April 30 and three recommendations might remain work in progress even after we have submitted our report,” Busingye, who is also the Attorney-General, said.

In fact Rwanda was in breach of its undertaking right from date it accepted to take on the recommendations in 2011, the country started the review in June last year and, as of today, according to the justice minister, 55 of the recommendations have been fully implemented. Why in the First place signed in 2011 and implemented in 2014?  Secondary, the statistics are not only inaccurate but also doctored by RPF cadres for the purpose of this Geneva obligation. But the truth is that Rwanda’s human rights record has been moving from bad to worse.

Mr. Busingye uses false measurements for his achievements.

According to Mr. Busingye Some of the implemented recommendations include the smooth winding up of the Gacaca court system and having in place a mechanism for dispute resolution on the cases of Genocide after Gacaca had closed.

I will argue that Gacaca was a total failure and a catastrophe for Rwanda as a nation, but very painful for many Rwandan families who have been falsely accused of committing genocide they never committed.  Initially Gacaca was a good idea but it was eventually hijacked by RPF for the purpose of settling political or economic scores with its opponents. Any Hutu who was potentially capable of standing against RPF was accused of genocide or genocide ideology.  The definition of Genocide ideology was vague and ambiguous deliberately doctored by RPF spin doctors to suffocate any potential opponents.  It was later repealed yet all the decided cases under the previous law remained in force.

My. Busingye further said that they put in place mechanism for dispute resolution on the cases of Gacaca, again, this incorrect and a deliberate conspiracy of deceipt.  In fact, the new law that was adopted has never been implemented, because they have been saying that the Gacaca documents are housed in a secret location, hence it was difficult to track them. Many people who were lucky managed to run away in exile, some were tried in absentia because they were potential political material or falsely accused of supporting what the RPF calls negative forces.

Can Mr. Busingye tell us how many Gacaca disputed cases have been re-addressed using the mechanisms he is talking about? Instead many people are rotting in Prisons for the crimes they didn’t commit or simply many have disappeared. Recently local human rights organizations said that inmates who had completed their sentence have not been set free; we are now getting conflicting statement from RCS ACP John Bosco KABANDA of Prisons saying no inmates who have completed their sentence are in Prison.

Who is fooling who? Where these inmates are previously reported? Or they have just disappeared?

Many questions remain unanswered when it comes to human rights record in Rwanda.

Mr. Busingye said that his government has adopted some laws that advance fundamental freedoms.

“We also have a set of new laws that advance freedoms of expression and association, access to information, organisation of political parties’ functions and several laws that have made strategic inroads along these areas,” the minister said.

This is again false and misleading, Rwanda is on record that it has put behind bars potential political opponents, like Ingabire Victoire, Deo Mushayid, Sylvain Sibomana, Bernard Ntaganda, Gen. Frank Rusagara, Col. Tom Byabagamba, Capt. David Kabuye. Lt. Joel Mutabazi, the RPF Government has murdered, Rwigara Assinapol,  BBC Programs   in Rwanda have been closed for  documenting the Untold Story. This is just tip of iceberg, but human rights violation have multiplied to an extent that they are now advocating the  Third Term for President Kagame, yet they don’t give the same time and space to those who oppose this project.

Furthermore, Mr Busingye defends the continued solitary confinement of inmates which has been described as a form of torture by legal experts, yet torture is non-derogable crime that you cannot adopted in any jurisdiction, it is for the poor record of human rights that, Rwanda has been ranked as one those countries suffocating freedom of expression and Speech by Commonwealth Human Rights and Democracy Report 2014 Published 12 March 2015.

Joseph Ruhumuriza

Legal Researcher Great Lakes Human Rights Link.