MPs press rights body on biased foreign reports

PARLIAMENT - Members of parliament put commissioners of the national rights body to task demanding their response to the malicious reports that have been issued by the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) within the last one month. The National Commission of Human Rights Commission (NCHR) presented their annual report to parliament, giving a clean sheet on the state of human rights in the country. But members of parliament were keen on finding out what the rights body had done to react to the malevolent reports from HRW. “My concern is how these international human rights organizations work with National Commission for Human Rights in dealing with this issue of Genocide revisionism? MP Gideon Kayinamura questioned. He particularly scoffed at HRW for releasing derogatory reports, which he said were undermining the reconciliatory process of this country. “Just last month, Human Rights Watch released a damning report on the Rwandan Army that stopped the Genocide,” Kayinamura said. “In my view, this is total abuse to the very people that stopped the Genocide. I request the NCHR to table this matter before international human rights forums and demand a stop of this abuse.” A seemingly bitter Kayinamura added, “if everybody just comes out to unfounded allegation, surely this should be taken as an attack on the national sovereignty and to the integrity of our people,” Kayinamura said. Though the parliamentary session was meant to debate the annual national report on state of human rights in the country, MPs seemed angered by the latest HRW allegations, choosing to spend some considerable time on it. MP Charles Kamanda echoed almost similar comments as Kayinamura and demanded to know how NCHR had reacted to the reports made by the New York based body. “Every time a report is released, the Minister of Justice calls the media to refute the allegations; I want to hear from the commission, what do you do when such reports come up?” MP Juvenal Nkusi wondered whether the two organizations view the state of rights in the country in two different lenses. “Their reports are full of fictional and false allegations but my concern is that since you deal in the same sector, why don’t you stand up for the country and openly refute these reports,” Nkusi said. In defence, the NCHR’s Chairperson Kayitesi Zainabu told MPs that after the recent report she met with an official of HRW in Kigali and discussed about the issue. “I pointed to him the irregularities and falseness in their reports but he seemed adamant to listen,” said Kayitesi. But MPs were discontented with the explanations provided and some called for legal action to be taken on the rights body. Kayitesi’ said in her annual report that compared to previous years, respect of individual rights had tremendously improved mainly due to new laws and government friendly policies. Ends