The Government plans to set up a national human rights policy and create a desk under the Rwanda National Police to investigate cases of enforced human disappearances, among other raft of measures to further improve human rights record in the country.

The development was revealed by the Ministry of Justice, yesterday, while releasing a four-year plan to implement some 50 recommendations from the UN Human Rights Commission to improve the country’s rights record.

Submitted to Rwanda last year under the commission’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism through which human rights records of all UN member states are reviewed, the recommendations cover different areas, from women empowerment and children’s education to freedom of expression and the preservation of human life.

Over the next four years up to the end of 2019, the Government plans to use its institutions and cooperate with members of the civil society and development partners to set up initiatives that will contribute in the improvement of people’s lives and rights in the country.

A raft of measures

Among other initiatives, the Government will set up a national human rights policy, the first of its kind in the country, create a desk under the Rwanda National Police to investigate cases of enforced human disappearances, review the organic law governing political parties and the media, and set up both laws and policies that better protect women and children against violence.

Steps will also be made to increase opportunities for youth employment, fight malnutrition among children, increase investments into the country’s education and health sectors, and continue to protect asylum seekers and refugees.

The plan, which has been technically dubbed, "The roadmap for the implementation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Recommendations,” has been welcomed by several development partners and human rights activists who were invited at the meeting to launch it in Kigali yesterday.

However, development partners also urged the civil society to play its part in the implementation of the recommendations, explaining that inputs from its members are needed to help the government succeed on the plan.

"The civil society is very much important. I hope that at the end we will see a more vibrant civil society,” said Dutch Ambassador to Rwanda Frédérique de Man.

The US Ambassador to Rwanda, Erica J. Barks-Ruggles, agreed with her Dutch counterpart and welcomed the need for the civil society to take advantage of the government’s openness to discuss human rights issues and play their role in the implementation of the UPR recommendations.

"The civil society has a very big role to play in these efforts,” Barks-Ruggles said.

While revealing the roadmap, the Minister for Justice, Johnston Busingye, urged all the concerned institutions in the country to own it and ensure that its implementation will be a success.

"Let’s view these recommendations not as obligations from the UN Human Rights Commission but rights to be enjoyed by all Rwandans,” he said, calling upon all members of the civil society and development partners to tell the ministry anything that might help for the implementation of the plan.

"The sooner we can implement these recommendations the better,” he said.

The UN Human Rights Advisor for Rwanda, Chris Mburu, welcomed the government’s plan to implement UPR recommendations but also called for urgency in setting up some of the initiatives without necessarily waiting for the next four years to elapse.

For example, he said, the Government needs to formulate a national human rights policy and action plan as a matter of urgency because it is one of the instruments on which other initiatives will be pegged.

"Strategically, I think there are certain things that can be done before the deadline,” Mburu said.

Rwanda has agreed to implement up to 50 of the 83 recommendations from the UN Human Rights Council for the period from 2011 to 2015.

The Government has, however, declined to support recommendations that were found not compatible with domestic laws and the Constitution, such as becoming a signatory of the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court, among others.

Conducted every four years, the Universal Periodic Review involves a review of human rights records of all UN member states.

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