The government of Rwanda on Friday, January 29, supported 160 recommendations by United Nations Human Right Council that will be implemented over the next five years. The recommendations are issued after a human rights review by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group. The review is conducted every five years. UPR assesses the state of performance on human rights, including civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of all UN member states. The Group that does the review consists of the 47 members of the Council, however, any UN Member State can take part in the discussion with the reviewed States. In a virtual session, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Johnston Busingye underscored the country’s commitment to implement recommendations that seek to promote human rights. He said: “I wish to reiterate the commitment of the Government of Rwanda to the implementation of the recommendations that enjoyed our full support.” “They will be as much a key component of my Governments human rights agenda for the next five years as they are important for the furtherance of human rights safeguards,” he added. Busingye also noted that the review provided “a mirror through which the country asses progress. According to the Attorney General, Rwanda supported 160 recommendations, noted 75 and 49 did not enjoy the country’s support. Concerning the recommendations that were noted, Busingye explained that “it is because they are already part of ongoing programs, actions, policies, or reforms, and we will continue to work in the same direction.” Recommendations said to be for examining, he added, did not enjoy our support. “We will communicate our response to the Working Group, in conformity with the rules of the process.” This is the third time Rwanda’s human rights record has been reviewed by the Group. The first time was in 2011 during which the recommendations were implemented at 94 percent. In 2019, the Ministry of Justice said that the government had achieved over 80 per cent of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations on human rights which were adopted in 2015. Shedding some light on some of the implemented recommendations, the Head of the Ministry of Justices International Justice and Judicial Cooperation Department, Providence Umurungi last year said that the commission had requested that defamation is decriminalized, something that she said was successfully implemented in the new penal code. “In the last five years, we have delivered on all the recommendations. In fact, some of them were already in place, we only improved them so that they can deliver more and better,” she said. For the latest recommendations, Busingye noted that their implementation process will begin with awareness on the outcome of the review, which he said is “already underway”, then carry out a consultation with stakeholder consultations before developing an implementation roadmap.
