On the eve of the commemoration of the International Day of Human Rights, local activists commended government for ensuring people’s rights are protected as they marshalled efforts to respond to the global pandemic, Covid-19.

The Day is marked every year on 10 December in commemoration of the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN General Assembly.

This year’s theme is Recover Better – Stand up for Human Rights, which is in line with the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed over 1.5 million people and paralysed economies.

Speaking to The New Times, different activists said that several safeguards were put in place to safeguard human rights, even during the early days of the response to the pandemic, when there was a total lockdown.

Jean Leonard Sekanyange, the chairperson of CLADHO, an umbrella body of human rights associations in Rwanda, said that human rights were even respected in detention centres and prison facilities.

"The judiciary adopted an online judicial system which helped curb the pandemic among detainees and prisoners,” he said, adding that all these efforts ensured there was no paralysis of activities, which may have led to many detainees spending unnecessarily a long time in detention centres.

Court proceedings are mostly conducted by videoconference which mitigates the risk of contact between the inmates and people outside.

To facilitate this, courtrooms have been set up in prisons which are fitted with cameras that link the accused, through video, with the judges and prosecutors in different courtrooms.

This was emphasized by Marie-Claire Mukasine, the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, who said that this has been a year like no other.

"This year was characterized by a global health challenges, but government made sure it did not impede the rights of the population,” she told The New Times in an interview.

She explained that during the lockdown, the government distributed relief support to vulnerable families that were greatly affected by the pandemic, especially those whose income was affected by the closure of businesses.

"In addition, people were allowed to access healthcare services and even drones were provided for urgent services which was among their rights of access to health”, she added.

Mukasine said that though there were cases of use of excessive force by some law enforcement officers while enforcing anti-Covid-19 measures, government stepped up efforts to address the vice and responsible individuals were apprehended.

Challenges remain

However, there are still challenges in as far as human rights is concerned.

Evariste Murwanashyaka, the programs manager at CLADHO, said that there are still gaps in as far as expropriation of those relocated in public interest is concerned.

"The law stipulates that compensation should be paid within 120 days after the valuation, but it takes time in some cases, he said, adding that it is an issue which needs much attention.

However, he thanked the government of Rwanda and the National Human Rights Commission for having a good working relationship with NGOs that advocate for human rights.

"In most of the other countries, human rights groups and governments are always on collision, but for us, government works with us to promote the rights of the people,” he said.

This year’s theme for the celebration of the International Day of Human Rights will be to recover better and stand up for human rights.