Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Johnston Busingye has told an AU meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General in Addis Ababa  that Rwanda’s Declaration made under the Protocol to the African Court was withdrawn to prevent fugitive genocide convicts from being allowed in the court as bonafide litigants.

"Although Rwanda made the Declaration in good faith, it did not envisage that access to the court would be granted to fugitive genocide convicts ” said Hon Busingye.

The African Court on Human and People’s Rights has in the recent past given platform to fugitive Genocide fugitives.

One such example involves a category one genocide convict, on the run since 2009, subject of an international arrest warrant, who petitioned the court claiming that Rwanda would violate her citizens’ rights by conducting the 2015 referendum.

"The Court interpreted our Declaration in a way that enabled a genocide fugitive to sue Rwanda in spite of the evidence which was filed with the court and an outstanding international arrest warrant against him, which Rwanda deemed unacceptable and acted” .Busingye further explained.

The meeting of African Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General met in Addis Ababa from November 14-15, 2017 to discuss and adopt key continental legal instruments.

Among the important ones adopted by the meeting are the draft regulatory texts of the Yamoussoukro Decision on liberalization of air transport in Africa and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons in Africa both of which  Rwanda highly supports.

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