Gov’t dismisses UN Special rapporteur Report

UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai

The Rwandan government has dismissed part of the report by the UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai that questioned the law concerning peaceful demonstrations in the country.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur Mr. Maina Kiai argued in a statement that the law regarding the  “the authorization to carry out peaceful demonstration was unnecessary”.

The Minister for Justice Mr. Busingye Johnston responded stressing on the purpose of such request for authorization as a measure “to be able to deploy maximum security towards the demonstrators and free up the roads to be used as provided by the law”.

The UN Special Correspondent was in Rwanda on an official visit that lasted for Seven days and concluded on Monday 27^th January 2014.

During his assessment, Kiai discussed about freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association and freedom of political parties.

Minister Busingye told the special rapporteur that Rwanda’s first mandate is to build a unified Rwandan community and protect the safety of its people in all sectors. “People have freedom to choose what is best for them” Busingye added.

The Justice Minister also commented about freedom of political parties, saying that RPF does everything possible to the development of all Rwandans in all sectors; adding that “RPF is the best thing that happened to Rwanda since 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi”.

On the other hand, the rapporteur’s own report seemed contradictory: in one part, the report questions Rwanda’s human rights protection whereas on the other side; it commends the government’s outstanding efforts and progress.

The report asserts “Democracy is well practiced” and that Rwandan Government should “keep up the good pace that they are in with regards to human rights protection” and urges the Government of Rwanda to keep on improving service delivery in the mentioned areas, admitting that “democracy is not a one day issue, but rather a process”.

The statement from Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice that was released on Tuesday 28^th January 2014 and comes ahead of Maina’s final report that will be presented in June 2014.