Rwanda UNSC presidency ends on a high

Rwanda’s presidency to the United Nations Security Council ended on Tuesday with officials commending the country’s contribution to the world body’s supreme organ. Rwanda assumed the presidency on April 1. The nation remains a member of the Security Council until the end of 2014. The presidency of the UNSC is rotated among the members in an alphabetical order and Togo is the chair for the month of May. Speaking to the media yesterday, Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Rwanda’s theme for the month was the prevention of conflicts. “We held the presidency as one of the 15 members of the Security Council; we didn’t hold the position to change the world in one month and bring peace but most importantly we did what we could to contribute to the good cause of the world, especially in tackling violence in different places,” said Mushikiwabo. Calling for conflict prevention, Mushikiwabo said normally when a crisis breaks out in a certain part of the world, the Security Council convenes to look into the problem. The Rwanda experience “For Rwanda, based on our past experience, we find it necessary to look into a crisis before it matures into a war or genocide, and that is one of our contributions to the UN Security Council,” she said. The other key matter that came up in the Security Council during Rwanda’s presidency was sexual violence in conflict situations. “We called for action on such crimes not just condemning. A case in point is what is happening in the DR Congo where people who raped women in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi crossed over to the DRC and continued raping women and girls,” said Mushikiwabo. Another issue that came before the Council in April is referrals for prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Rwanda is not party to the ICC, and according to Mushikiwabo, there is ill intention in the way justice is delivered at the ICC. On shunning ICC “We did not become signatory to this court because of the kind of injustice that Rwanda was undergoing at that time with French judges trying to cover up for the crimes of French officials in Rwanda by indicting Rwandan officials,” Mushikiwabo said. “So we were afraid that the court would become an instrument of powerful countries, especially involving Africa,” the minister added. “And we were proven right. All the cases at the ICC (28 cases) are from Africa. One would think the world is full of African criminals. This needs to be fixed if we want to advance justice,” she told jodurnalists. As Rwanda’s tenure ended, the Permanent Representative to the UN, and State Minister for Cooperation Eugène-Richard Gasana, reminded members that the Security Council had failed to stop the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and called for genuine commitment from members of the Council to push through concrete results on the Syrian crisis. “Only then can we hope to remove this stain from our collective conscience,” Gasana said. During Rwanda’s presidency, two open debates were held–a ministerial open debate on women and peace and security (sexual violence in conflict) and the quarterly open debate on Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

National

Rwanda UNSC presidency ends on a high