The United Nations has pledged to increase its support of building peace and security in the country.

The UN Resident Coordinator, Aurelien Agbenonci, said this Tuesday while delivering his speech at the International Conference on the Role of Security Organs to End Violence against Women, in Kigali

"I would like to assure that United Nations in Rwanda remains committed to ensure that Rwanda and its national security organs receive the support they require to keep her a place of peace, a place of security, and a place of harmony for all girls, boys, men and women.” Agbenonci said.

In 2008, the UN Secretary General launched a global campaign known as "UNITE to end Violence of women and girls”, to draw attention to the pervasiveness of the consequences affecting millions of women and girls worldwide.

Agbenonci said that the overall objective of the Africa UNITE Campaign is to enhance the implementation of national and international commitments to upscale responses, call attention to the needs of national and local laws, policies and programmes with the international Human Rights standards and intervention.

"Ending impunity is central to eliminating violence against women and girls in Africa as the majority of acts of violence against them go unpunished,” he noted.

"Despite the troubled history of this country, the Rwandan government was able to rebuild its security sector with focus on responsible and accountable security force that adopts policy and security approaches that are community based, fostering sectorial partnership, and providing protection, including ending violence against women.” Agbenonci noted

The Commissioner General of Police, Emmanuel Gasana said that conference will help share their experiences, celebrate their successes, acknowledge their challenges, lay new strategies and forge strong alliances that will anchor Rwanda’s policies and initiatives for years to come.

"The establishment of Isange One Stop Centre located at Kacyiru Police Hospital, as well as Gender Desks in RDF and RNP and, the introduction of Community Policing philosophy in Police, is a clear indication of our commitment and efforts to bring an end to violence against women and girls in Rwanda.” Gasana said.

Gasana said that child molestation cases reduced by 22 percent last year from over 2000 cases recorded in 2006 while rape cases dropped by 26 percent over the same period.

"These achievements although not as high as we would like them to be, are a clear demonstration that our public awareness campaign message is getting through to the people and most importantly, women and girls are gaining the confidence to break their silence and speak out.”

He said that Rwanda is on track to meeting the obligation under resolution 1325 that requires countries involved in peace keeping and peace building missions to have a minimum 20 percent of its forces made up of female officers.

Gasana called for commitment to fight GBV. About 12 countries took part in the two-day conference that ended yesterday.

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