Rwanda History: Fw: [ibukabose_rengerabose] Fw: Rwanda: deteriorating human rights and security situation

Rwanda: deteriorating human rights and security situation

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H.E. Amb. Smail Chergui,
Commissioner, Peace and Security,
African Union (AU)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
October 20, 2020

Your Excellency,
We, a coalition of 37 organizations, write to you in your capacity as the Chairperson of the
African Commission on Peace and Security (The Commission), to appeal you to urgently
address the deteriorating human rights and security situation in Rwanda.
We reiterate that Rwanda continues to face allegations of human rights violations that are
of an extremely serious nature. These allegations have been found credible by none less
than Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and UN panel on human rights.
Several well-grounded allegations exist about the extreme lack of fundamental freedoms in
Rwanda, which it is charged, has resulted in serious violations of freedom of expression,
association and movement, as well as entrenched impunity and serious human rights
violations. Together, these make Rwanda the most acute human rights abuser within the
Great Lakes region..
Your excellency, we draw your attention to grave human rights violations in Rwanda that
have been internationally recognised and reports of ongoing human rights violations that
are regularly highlighted. Despite Rwanda's repeated denial, these serious and persistent
violations have been widely documented by Human Rights bodies for the past 26 years.
They also led to a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the country earlier this year. The
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has always named Rwanda among the top 10
countries in the world that have gone unpunished for intimidation and reprisals against
critics.
Your excellency, in 1994, Rwanda suffered a tragedy that left over one million of its citizens
dead as a result of war and genocide. The war and genocide resulted in immense suffering
to millions more. The war and genocide have had far-reaching repercussions for both
Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa as a whole.
President Kagame is perceived by most outsiders as both invincible and indispensable to
national and regional stability. There is, however, more to Rwanda and Paul Kagame than
new buildings, clean streets, and efficient government than President Kagame's famous
friends in high places in Europe and America care to admit. Rwanda is essentially a hard -
line, one-party, secretive police state with a façade of democracy. The ruling party, the
Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), has closed space for political participation. The RPF does not
tolerate political opposition or open competition for power. The government ensures its
monopoly of power by means of draconian restrictions on the exercise of the fundamental
human rights of citizens. The press, civil society and opposition parties are deprived of
freedom to operate freely. President Kagame and the ruling party that he leads have always
depended on repression to stay in power.
State institutions, especially law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and security services,
serve to protect the RPF's, and ultimately Kagame's power monopoly instead of protecting
the fundamental human rights of citizens. Repression has again become particularly acute in
recent months. There have been assassination attempts, killings and enforced
disappearances of members of the press and political opposition within and outside
Rwanda. Purges of political enemies, real and imagined, within the ruling party government
continue unabated. These purges have now been extended to the military. A climate of fear
and terror has enveloped the nation. Rwanda is in crisis. The situation that prevails raises
serious questions about the country's future.
Current Political status
Rwanda is a one-party dictatorship under President Kagame. President Kagame has
effectively corrupted the founding ideals of the RPF. Through RPF, President Kagame denies
the people of Rwanda the opportunity to exercise their fundamental human rights,
particularly the right of political participation. President Kagame is both corrupt and
authoritarian. He uses repression to ensure his continued monopoly of power. State
institutions violate the most fundamental human rights of the people, including the right to
life and the integrity of the person, to keep the President Kagame in power. State security
institutions enjoy impunity for grave human rights violations against critics and opponents
of the government. President Kagame's abuse of the institutions of the state to support his
quest for absolute power and economic gain is criminalising the fabric of the Rwandan state.
Judicial system
Your excellency, in Rwanda, the functioning of the justice system is constrained by lack of
judicial independence. The judiciary does not enjoy independence. The independence of
Rwanda's judiciary is compromised by the executive. The President, through the control that
he exercises over the Senate Chamber of the legislature, controls most senior judges
(including the Supreme Court) and through them, the rest of the judiciary. Most of the
members of the judiciary are cadres of the ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). The
RPF compels its members who have been appointed to the judiciary to continue to owe
allegiance to the party; to participate in some activities of the party and to pay financial
contributions to the party's campaign and daily operation.
Judicial authorities operate in a political context where the executive continues to dominate
the judiciary and where there is an official antipathy to views diverging from those of the
government and the dominant party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The judiciary is
particularly vulnerable to outside interference in cases involving political issues. The
President, his close advisers and security services personnel frequently coerce members of
the judiciary to make judicial decisions to suit the interests of the regime. Instead of being
the protector and defender of citizens' fundamental human rights, the judiciary has become
one of the main tools by which the regime perpetuates authoritarian rule by persecuting
opponents and critics.
Persecution of Political Opponents
The regime in Rwanda has for years jailed political opponents and disqualified them from
running for office. Since the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front took power, Rwandans have
faced huge, and often deadly, obstacles to participating in public life and voicing criticism of
government policies. Killings and disappearances need to be placed in the context of many
years of similar violence for which no one has yet been held to account. In this chilling
atmosphere, it is unsurprising that would-be government critics practice self-censorship.
The regime uses the coercive instruments of the state, that is the military, security services
and police, to sustain the status quo in power against the will of the people. State security
officers continue to commit grave human rights abuses to suppress all political opposition
and critics of government. Impunity for gross human rights abuses is worse than it was prior
to the genocide. Rwanda remains deeply divided along ethnic lines. As a result of these and
other factors, Rwanda remains unstable and prone to violent, and identity-based conflict.
The report documents how opposition politicians, journalists and human rights defenders
have faced restrictions on their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful
assembly in the two decades since the genocide. They have been jailed, physically attacked
– even killed – and forced into exile or silence.
Independent human rights defenders who criticize government policies or are perceived as
opponents to government have faced different forms of attacks and restrictions in Rwanda.
NGOs are subject to onerous – and costly – registration procedures. The nebulous charge of
promoting 'genocide ideology' has been levied at international and domestic human rights
organizations who criticize the government.
Rwanda's history of political repression, attacks on opposition figures and dissenting voices
in the context of previous elections, stifles political debate and makes those who might
speak out think twice before taking the risk.
People accused of crimes against state security continued to be arrested and held
unlawfully in military camps. Many people held in these camps were tortured in an attempt
to force them to confess or accuse others. Authorities continued to round up street
vendors, sex workers, street children, and other poor people and detained them in so-called
transit centres across the country.. Conditions in these centres are harsh and inhumane, and
beatings are common.
For years, thousands of men, women, and children—many of them street children,
commercial sex workers, or street hawkers are detained unlawfully, without charge or trial,
in very poor conditions in an unrecognized detention centre commonly known as Kwa
Kabuga, in the Gikondo area of Kigali. Many were beaten by police, or by other detainees in
the presence of police.
Rwanda has degenerated into a criminal state. Victims of human rights violations committed
against persons considered to be opponents of the government do not have an opportunity
for seeking redress from the courts. Agents of the state are, to this day, still able to commit
grave human rights abuses that is killings, torture, and disappearances, without fear of
being held accountable. Impunity for human rights violations is now far more deeply
entrenched in the Country, Rwanda.
Reconciliation
The promotion of national reconciliation should have been the foremost priority of
Rwandan society in the aftermath of the genocide. Instead, President Kagame's pursuit of
absolute power, his intolerance for political opposition, persecution of opponents and critics
of the regime and partisan nature of the processes of accountability for past human rights
violations that Rwanda has undertaken, have all led to elusiveness of national unity and
reconciliation. As a result of the policies that the regime has pursued since it took control of
government, Rwandan society remains deeply divided.
The politics of ethnicity remain intractable in Rwanda. Armed insurgents continue to wage
war against the Rwandan state from their sanctuaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
twenty-six years after the genocide.. Externally - based unarmed opposition has on several
occasions called for dialogue on how to resolve Rwanda's continuing crisis, but the regime
has refused to heed to that call of negotiating with its opponents.
The Kagame led regime has failed to engage and lead Rwandan society in genuine
reconciliation. The social conditions of post -genocide Rwanda remain constructed in terms
of ethnic identity. The reconciliation that the Rwanda regime envisions is politically
constructed on the terms of the ruling party - RPF and President Kagame, which are
insufficient for ensuring the long-term stability of Rwanda. Lack of national dialogue on
reconciliation processes has very profound implications for the long -term stability of
Rwanda and the security of its population. There cannot be genuine reconciliation in
Rwanda until the grievances of both Tutsis and Hutus communities are well and genuinely
discussed.
Your excellency, Rwanda is a member state of the AU, and it is expected to uphold the
human rights principles set out in AU's Constitutive Act. Your Excellency, the on-going
violations of human rights in Rwanda are not in keeping with the country's obligations and
domestic laws, including the constitution and major international and regional human rights
instruments ratified by Rwanda. Paul Kagame and his regime violate objectives 3(g) and (h)
of the Constitutive Act of the AU which enjoins AU member States to promote popular
participation and human and people's rights, respectively. Recalling the role of the AU as
the lead regional institution tasked to better the lives of the people of Africa, and particular
Rwandan citizens as in this case, we respectfully ask you to take measures to ensure that
the regime of president Paul Kagame restores respect for the rule of law, ensures ample
protection of human rights and aligns its practices to ratified international and regional
human rights standards including the Constitutive Act of the AU and the African Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights. We respectfully ask you to consider including the situation of
human rights in Rwanda as a point for discussion in the agenda of the next Summit of the
Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU with recommendations for the
Summit to deliberate on asking the government of Rwanda to:
1. Take steps to ensure full compliance with international and regional human rights
standards;
2. Release of all political prisoners, human rights campaigners and journalists;
3. Respect separation of powers by refraining from interfering with the system of
administration of justice;
4. Institute effective mechanisms to protect journalists, civil society groups and human
rights defenders who work for the promotion and protection of human rights;
5. Halt enforced disappearances, investigate and punish perpetrators of enforced
disappearances;
6. Investigate and punish perpetrators and stop attacks against political opponents,
peaceful decent and journalists;
7. Allow full and credible international investigations into all allegations concerning
violations of international humanitarian law in the country;
8. Respect the right to access to information and freedom of the media. In particular,
lift the ban against independent press and media;
9. Investigate and take actions to punish perpetrators of torture and ensure assistance
and reparations to the victims;
10. Address lengthy pre-trial detention and release all detainees who are being held in
pre-trial detention without proper charges;
11. Restore Constitutional provisions that guarantee separation of powers and re-instate
the independence of the three branches of government;
12. Promote a culture of dialogue and participation and comply with internationally and
regionally recognised standards on the rule of law and civic space;
13. Start direct dialogue with Rwandans in exile; and
14. Accept dialogue with armed groups operating in DR Congo.

CC: H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson, AU Commission
H.E. Amb. Dr. Namira Negm, AU Legal Counsel
H.E.. Amb. Augustino Njoroge, Interim Chairperson of the Reconstituted Joint
Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC)
Commissioner Solomon Dersso, Chairperson, African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights (ACHPR)
H.E. Amb. Mrs Hope Tumukunde Gasatura, Rwanda's Ambassador to Ethiopia and
Permanent Representative to the African Union
Signatories:
1. Action citoyenne pour la Paix
2. Amahoro-PC
3. Association des rescapés du génocide des réfugiés rwandais au Congo (Ex-Zaïre-
RDC) ARGR-Intabaza
4. Centre de Lutte contre l'Impunité et l'Injustice au Rwanda (CLIIR)
5. Comité pour l'Unité, la Paix et la Réconciliation au Rwanda (CUPR)
6. Congrès rwandais du Canada (CRC)
7. Convention Nationale Républicaine (CNR-Intwari)
8. Comité de Suivi de la Problématique des Réfugiés Rwandais (CSPR)
9. COVIGLA, Collectif des victimes des crimes de masse commis dans la region des
grands lacs africains
10. Democratic Rwanda Party, DRP-ABASANGIZI
11. FDU-Inkingi
12. Fondation Ibukabose-Rengerabose, Mémoire et Justice pour tous
13. Global Voice of Rwandan Refugees (GVRR)
14.. Groupe d'initiative France-Rwanda
15. Inganzo Gakondo
16. Initiative du Peuple pour l'Alliance Démocratique (IPAD-Umuhuza)
17. Initiative Humanitaire pour la région des grands lacs (IHRGL)
18. Initiative HUMURA
19. Institut Seth Sendashonga pour la Citoyenneté Démocratique ISCID asbl
20. JAMBO asbl
21. Liberté d'Expression Culture et Paix, LECP Info
22. Mouvement Républicain pour la Paix et le Progrès, MRP
23. MRCD-Ubumwe
24. Norway Sub Sahara Africa development organization (NSADO)
25. Observatoire des Droits de l'Homme au Rwanda (ODHR)
26. Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda and Great Lakes
Region (OPJDR)
27. Pacte Démocratique du Peuple (PDP-IMANZI)
28. PS Imberakuri
29. Réseau International pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme au
Rwanda (RIPRODHOR)
30.. RNC-Ihuriro
31. Rwanda National Forum (RNF)
32. Rwandan Alliance for the National Pact (RANP-Abaryankuna)
33. Rwandan American Youth Association
34. Rwandan Platform for Dialogue, Truth, and Justice (RDTJ)
35. Rwandiska föreningen för mänskliga rättigheter (RFMR)
36. Rwandiske Forum i Oslo, FORUM RWANDAIS D'OSLO (RFO), Norvège
37. United Freedom Fighters (UFF-INDANGAMIRWA)