Are Rwanda’s Commonwealth hopes dented by Human Rights abuses?
Posted by AlexT - 29/07/09 at 03:07 pmRwanda was welcomed with virtual open arms at the 2007 Kampala Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni giving energetic support to his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
Kagame attended the banquet given by the Queen and spoke at the Commonwealth Business Forum about an economically vibrant new Africa. His country has been pressing for Commonwealth membership for a number of years. Despite their more obvious connection to the Francophonie than the Anglophone Commonwealth, they see Commonwealth membership having economic, cultural and political benefits.
Rwanda’s membership application is due to be decided this year at the Trinidad and Tobago CHOGM, and given the gracious welcome Kagame received in Kampala, membership was assumed by many to be a safe-bet.
A report released this week by the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has come as a blow to these hopes. They accuse the Rwandan government of having a very poor human rights record, including harsh laws banning genocidal ideology, harassment of journalists and military intervention in Democratic Republic of Congo.
But the Rwandans and their advocates have hit back. James Wizeye, first secretary at the embassy of Rwanda in London, has written of the progress made by his country over the past 15 years:
“a casual scan of the 40 or so local Kinyarwanda independent papers will reveal that they publish whatever they want.”
He goes on to mention that Rwanda has the highest proportion of female legislators in the world, and that corruption is low. Tony Blair, who acts as an unpaid advisor on governance describes Rwanda as ‘one of Africa?s most remarkable success stories’.
So where does this leave Rwanda’s application to join the Commonwealth? Should Heads of Government take this report seriously and forgot about an invite to Trinidad? Or should they welcome Rwanda with open arms? Would a formal road-map to membership be more appropriate? Give us your thoughts below.
Category : Democracy & Good Governance, Human Rights
Tags: Human Rights, Rwanda
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July 31st, 2009 at 9:15 am
It looks like the Rwandans are getting quite excited about the prospect of joining the Commonwealth. See this feature article from Kigali: ‘Rwanda’s bidding to join the Commonwealth ignites national enthusiasm’
http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=104621884
July 31st, 2009 at 10:01 am
And a group of visiting commonwealth parliamentarians have pledged their support to Rwanda’s bid!
http://www.apanews.net/public/apa.php?page=article&id_article=105385
July 31st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Rwanda is doing well, compared to most of the sub Saharan countries within the commonwealth.
I learn from the article that Zoe posted that the move to join shows that countries are past the age of colonial attachments and looking forward to alliances and belongings that guarantee certain benefits.
Though the argument that Rwanda is doing so to cement its divorce from the french seems to hold more. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1391770.ece
August 1st, 2009 at 5:17 am
from my point of view, Rwanda’s membership application should not be denied just solely based on its human rights records as there have been many commonwealth member countries that have failed or have not yet achieved the standard human rights records set out under the international law. At the moment Srilanka may be a classic example for its failure to comply with the universal declaration of human rights standard especially in terms of protecting the fundamental rights of minority tamil people.
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29846
therefore, Cth should take into account other criteria under the framework of its policies and rules in regards to welcome Rwanda in the Commonwealth.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:59 am
So Mong Marma – because other Commonwealth countries are abusing human rights… these principles should not be used to judge Rwanda?
I think this is a slippery slopes. The natural conclusion of your argument is that human rights no longer become important. And then what is the point of the whole organisation?
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Dear Mr AlexT,sorry for the misunderstaning.
I think I failed to clearly state what I meant to say otherwise you have interpretted my comment differently. I did not say that “human rights principles should not be used to judge Rwanda”, nor did I say that “human rights no longer become important.’ What I intend to say is human rights record should not be just the only one criterion, other criteria such as Rwanda’s relationship with Cth member countries,its political, socio-economical situations, the policies and guidelines of the Cth in relation to accept the membership of Rwanda or any other countries, should be taken into account.I am also not trying to say that Rwanda’s overall human rights situation should be overlooked,rather my position is that if Rwanda has worse human rights records than other Cth countries, then ofcourse its membership should not be accepted. If Rwanda can satisfy the Cth by improving its human rights records in a given period of time by the Cth, then it’s membership should not be rejected as well.
In regards to human rights records in other Cth countries, my point is that Cth has failed in achieving its goal in terms of promoting and protecting human rights as most of it member countries have very poor human rights records such as Srilanka, pakistan, bangladesh, india and some african countries as well. what my suggestion is, until and unless the Cth takes proper and appropriate action against the member country/countries
that has worse human rights action or which fails o improve the HR situation in a given period time, the
core objectives of the Cth to promote and protect the fundamental rights of the peoples will just be a written document without having any effect in practice.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I hope that Rwanda joins the commonwealth. I see Kagame as one of the best leaders the region has. It is easy to say human rights are not being respected but if you look at the history of Rwanda you will note that the one hundred days of madness was fueled by loose talk and allowing people air out their divisive sentiments. Rwanda is still healing and still in a fragile state. The government has to make a choice between allowing freedoms that can cause tensions or keep a close eye and limit what people can say and do while guaranteeing security and peace.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Alex T, have you been to Rwanda?
No one will tell you this, freedom of speech is what led to 800,000 deaths in 100days. there is a song which people used to sing carelessly, the radio stations all said kill the ……. and now we are building our homes and relations again and you suggest we give people the right to speak and do as they wish. You have no idea the things that lie deep in out hearts. Give me that freedom and i’l start another war. see if you come to my rescue. Rwanda is doing so well without France, without the commonwealth and really i see no gain in joining the commonwealth apart from cementing our bitter divorce with the french. Uganda has been with you since forever, what do they have to show for it? show me a country that has benefited from the commonwealth? Well, the ones with all the money and power like Canada perhaps. I say, we are greatful to God for what he has done for us since 94 and Long live Kagame. Freedom, human rights, democracy… we define them differently here. Let us heal in the way our government decides. and do not judge us by your standards. i invite you to come and live the real life that we live then see if you can write the same.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Karera I completely agree with you.. I was recently in Uganda and saw no evidence of how CHOGM being held there has benefit everyday individuals, most dont know even know anything about the Commonwealth.
When they suspended zimbabwe did it even seem as if zim cared that much?? rwanda can do without the commonwealth because its tough to find evidence on where exactly it has been effective, they may have a number of development projects in some member states but thats about it and this topic is the exact example of how the commonwealth’s principles of democracy and human rights are from such a westernised perspective, it was media freedom, radio shows etc which allowed msgs of hate to spread in Rwanda which resulted in one of the greatest tragedies of our time so it is only the people of Rwanda that can know what harm such rights can do sometimes and how sometimes they arent for every state or community. Rwanda has its own healing to do and being part or not part of the commonwealth will make no difference to that
August 17th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
You can see the Executive Summary of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Report here: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/hradvocacy/rwanda‘s_application_for_membership_of_the_commonwealth.pdf
September 6th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Rwanda is taking steps to becoming more and more Anglophone as a country and more “commonwealth” in operation as well. The human rights abuses, there should be a detailed report on what exactly these are. I believe the press should be controlled as long as there is a huge risk from the freedom of activity. bad propaganda in a country that still is as fragile as rwanda should be kept out of the public. Anything that divides people along ethnic lines has no use in nation building. Divisions should be ideological. It is expected that people in a society will disagree and then agree depending upon the perceptions of their destinies. I believe they are right to keep out genocidal ideologies. Dividing people to rule them will in the long term lead to chaos.
Rwanda is a good example to Africa in terms of orderly progress and planned development. I believe they would benefit from strategic partnerships in the commonwealth and there really isn’t any major reason to keep them out.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
hahahhahaha,you guys you make laugh or cry if that matters. when kagame was invading rwanda in 1990s his motto was to protect people i mean tutsis from human rights abuses done aganst them,by his luck the situation deteriorated and he got the whole country and the whole world in his support. when he was killing hutus in northern rwanda and DRC every body okayed him especially koffi anan just simply because he is an ally of the west.145000 people are languishing in jails around the country nonoe is talking about human right just because those in jail are just hutus. now when museveni invited his cousin kagame to join him in his bid to establish tutsi i mean himaland across africa from ethiopia to Luanda angola, who rejoices without considering Kagames oppression and intellectual genocide he is doing around the country whereby he has removed french from official use just simply because it is the language most hutu scholars learnt in and use in all rwandan administration now he has abolished french to send these hutu stupids packing.all in the name of isolating foolish hutus and now you are saying because it is your turn Yah Pal Ghai should not use a human rights card as a commonwealth yardstick to stop rwanda joining commonwealth?who doesnt know that kagame is being accused of killing habyalimana and ntaryamira two hutu presidents he killed at ago?who is a murderer than this
October 12th, 2009 at 10:26 am
As pr. Yah Pal Ghai mentionned in his report, there are countries that have human rights abuses and sin in commonwealth but those country have a close past with England, which is not the case for Rwanda. so for a country that is not part of England history it is logic that it should be clean before entering in the commonwealth. And as the report sates,Rwanda is responsible of killing of hundreds of thousands of hutus,practising live impresonment by confinment(no visit, you are just isonlated from the rest of the world, just like at the time of Roma and ‘oubliettes’ and Rwanda is responsible of more than 5000000 death in RDC either by war or by consequences of war. I don’t know if there is any other country in Africa with such catastrophic human rights record. If the commonwealth admits such a country it will show to the wole world that it doesn’t care about tremendous suffering of people over there in Central Africa
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Rwanda’s membership can be beneficial to the country but again, this should not compromise the principles of the Commonwealth.
The current regime has done unimaginable, systematic atrocities.
first of they should be held accountable for that.
second, they should be pressured to change their evil ways.
Commonweath membership is probably the last on the list of psychologically wrecked poor Rwandans especially the HUTUs who have suffered as much as the TUTSIs but who have no one to tell…! who are a living in fear and constant by the Tutsi’s who at least have all the attention and favor the world. just because their plight was skilfully publicised in by the selfish and brutal current leaders! Massacres of innocent Tutsi took place, but how many innocent Hutus have been murdered, starved to death?
Commonwealth needs to take into account what is more important: ignoring the reality and admitting Rwanda immediately or pushing it towards radical reforms and then admitting it later? This is the test of its (commonwealth) reliability and value for human lives
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Rwandans have done and still do i think, one of the most inhuman acts in the entire world. This is as a result of the injustices, impunity that have been going on for many years. Now, Why would someone be more interested in Rwanda joining Commonwealth rather than helping Rwanda recover from this bloody conflicts? given the Human rights report, clearly it will be very ironical for any international bodies to express the willingness of helping Rwanda gain the membership on one hand and sweep these ugly realities under the carpet and move on the other.
Our eyes are on Commonwealth now. We want to see how concerned they are really are for Rwandans.
Hold this government accountable for what they did too and what they are still doing, if you contend to be fair and unbiased!
November 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
The debate continues in today’s New Times of Rwanda article –
“Official Slams Rights Group Over Allegations on Commonwealth” http://allafrica.com/stories/200911090082.html