Rwanda received 284 recommendations from the United Nations Human Right Council, of which the country accepted to implement 160 and took note of 75 during the just concluded Universal Periodic Review that was held last week. According to Providence Umurungi, the head of International Judicial Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Justice, thes resolutions will be implemented over the next five years. This is the third time Rwanda has participated in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), having first made the trip to Geneva in 2011 and later in 2015. Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of all 193 UN Member States is reviewed every four or five years. The reviews are conducted by the UPR Working Group which consists of the 47 members of the Council, however, any UN Member State can take part in the discussion with the reviewed States. Each State review is assisted by groups of three States who serve as rapporteurs. On rejected recommendations Shedding more light on what transpired during the review held in Geneva, Switzerland last week, Umurungi said that most of the rejected recommendations were unrealistic and inaccurate as compared to the reality on the ground. “For instance, it is surprising to hear some countries recommend that Rwanda should stop recruiting minors in security forces, something that is completely irrelevant to us and untrue because the recruitment process in these institutions is the most open, transparent and clear about the age factor,” she said. Umurungi also cited an example of the recommendation regarding sex tourism of minors which she said is one of the many examples of those that are concern Rwanda since it does not have such an issue. She touched on the issues of people disappearances which she said were raised by different members of the review committee. However, she explained that there is already an official desk in the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) that specifically receives and investigates any reports of missing persons. It should be noted that Rwanda is not a signatory of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. One other recommendation that Rwanda rejected was the scrapping of transit centers which the government said are used to temporarily hold children before they are rehabilitated and reunited with their families. She said that such recommendations are made by some organisations like Human Rights Watch based on some information that is mostly inaccurate and not updated. “We are not perfect and we do not claim to be. There were challenges at the beginning but if you look at what these centers are doing in terms of taking these children off the streets and reuniting them with their families, and giving them another chance at a normal upbringing, their value is on record,” she said. Not signing Rome Statute Umurungi shed some light on Rwanda’s stand on the International Criminal Court (ICC) which she said will remain unchanged. She explained that this particular recommendation has been raised by members for years but added that while all the countries’ objective is to protect and promote human rights, they also have a right to reject something as many times as they want. Unlike other thematic treaties which only bind countries that ratify them, the UPR affects all UN member States since it was adopted through a General Assembly resolution. It is also a sort of peer review mechanism (countries reviewing each other) unlike other treaties that are exclusively handled by committees of experts.
