Heads of national human rights institutions from the East African Community are meeting in Kigali for a three-day seminar on conflict prevention and peace building. While opening the meet on Monday, the Minister for East African Community Affairs, Monique Mukaruriza, said there is need to enhance relations within member countries and called for respect of human rights, peace and security. Mukaruriza urged the regional human rights activists to be strongly involved and advocate for non-violence as a better way to deal with conflicts and lead to sustainable peace. She said Rwanda is on track, given that it contributes to conflict resolutions through peace building missions in South Sudan and Darfur, among other foreign lands. The chairperson of the National Commission for Human Rights, Madeleine Nirere, called for human rights institutions to ensure that national laws are cognisant of human rights. She also called for a creative and constructive management of conflict. “Conflicts are an inevitable part of our lives and cannot be completely eradicated. However, it is important to manage them constructively and more creatively so that they do not escalate into violence,” Nirere said. “Viewed in this positive light, conflict may present opportunities for change, growth, development and creative problem-solving.” Gilbert Sebihogo, the executive director of Network of African National Human Rights Institutions, suggested the need to find the root cause of conflicts and human rights violation and to identify the role national commissions can play in managing and preventing conflicts. The seminar was organised by the secretariat of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions in partnership with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Commission Rwanda.Participants will discuss findings of the baseline survey conducted to establish the capacity and involvement of human rights bodies in conflict prevention and peace building. The EAC Human Rights Bill was passed by the East African Legislative Assembly during a session in Nairobi, Kenya, in April last year. It effects provisions of the EAC human rights treaty and consolidates the principles of UN and the African Charter on human rights.
