[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus)and mass arrests of Hutus by the RPF criminal organization =>AS International]
16 August 2013
AI Index: AFR 47/002/2013
Rwanda: Official interference
in affairs of human rights NGO places independent human rights work in
peril
The former leadership of the
Rwandan human rights organization LIPRODHOR, the Rwandan League for the
Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (la Ligue rwandaise pour la promotion
et la défense des droits de l’homme) has been forced out. The
circumstances in which the board was replaced strongly indicate the involvement
of the Rwandan authorities.
The capacity of human rights
defenders to work in Rwanda has been further weakened and the space for
meaningful human rights work has all but closed up.
The move followed a decision
by the former leadership to leave the Collective of Leagues and Associations
for the Defense of Human Rights in Rwanda (Collectif des ligues et associations
de défense des droits de l’homme au Rwanda, CLADHO), a platform of
human rights organizations, on the grounds that its executive committee
had been put in place by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), an official
body charged with promoting and monitoring good governance.
On 3 July 2013, the President
of LIPRODHOR wrote a letter to announce LIPRODHOR’s decision to pull out
of CLADHO, questioning the selection of CLADHO’s new committee and the
network’s capacity to protect member organizations. Two other partner
organizations also signed the letter.
On 21 July 2013, a group of
LIPRODHOR members, which included a former president of the organization,
held an extraordinary general assembly to discuss the organization’s decision
to leave CLADHO. The meeting was conducted without notifying LIPRODHOR’s
governing board, which included the President and the Vice-President.
According to the statute of the organization, members should receive an
invitation letter at least eight days before the meeting. In addition,
the number of participants in the meeting did not meet that required for
a General Assembly, which needs an absolute majority. The meeting
resulted not only in the reversal of LIPRODHOR’s withdrawal from CLADHO,
but in the replacement of LIPRODHOR’s board and President. A new board,
including a new President, were elected and scheduled to begin in post
from 26 July 2013.
The election of the new board
was swiftly recognized by the RGB, despite complaints by the ousted board
regarding the legitimacy of the procedure. The former board of LIPRODHOR
has since launched a legal action against the decision of the RGB to support
the former board’s dismissal, as well as the cancellation of the decision
to leave CLADHO. The case is on-going.
The Rwandan authorities have
shown that they have too much influence in the internal workings of NGOs.
Incidents such as these demonstrate how legitimate freedom of association
can be curtailed and how an organization’s independence can be compromised.
The procedure for resolving
internal conflicts in civil society organizations in Rwanda is governed
by law. The 2012 law governing the organisation and the functioning
of national NGOs specifies that all national NGO statutes shall provide
for an organ charged with conflict resolution. To comply, Article
19 of LIPRODHOR’s statute provides for a Committee for Discipline and
Conflict Resolution for handling such disputes, but this was not used.
Restrictions have been placed
on LIPRODHOR’s activities. A workshop scheduled for 24 July 2013
was prevented from going ahead by the police. The workshop, organized
by LIPRODHOR, was on how civil society organizations could submit evidence
as part of the reporting process for the United Nations Universal Periodic
Review.
Background information
Amnesty International has
documented longstanding patterns of intimidation and harassment of human
rights defenders by the Rwandan authorities. Human rights defenders
are regularly intimidated, threatened, and subjected to public and personalized
attacks or administrative obstacles. Reporting on human rights violations,
especially if publically denounced, leads to hostile government reactions.
Human rights defenders often avoid working on sensitive areas, and
refrain from or delay publishing to minimize potential repercussions. Rwandan
human rights defenders also face challenges within their own organizations
which have been infiltrated by people close to the authorities.
Few human rights organizations
left in Rwanda retain some level of independence, but LIPRODHOR has been
one such organization. It was established in 1991 and became one
of the only credible independent national human rights organisations. By
1999, it had significantly increased its operations, staff and monitoring
presence. LIPRODHOR’s capacity to investigate and report on human
rights violations incurred attacks from the Rwandan authorities. Its
staff members have repeatedly been intimidated, harassed and forced into
exile. The authorities have sought to discredit the work of the
organization. A parliamentary commission report in March 2003 accused
the Democratic Republican Movement (Mouvement démocratique républicain),
a political opposition party, of propagating an alleged “divisionist”
and discriminatory program and accused LIPRODHOR of obtaining foreign funding
for the party. A second parliamentary commission in June 2004 alleged
that LIPRODHOR, along with other organizations, was guilty of holding and
disseminating genocide ideology and recommended its dissolution.
ENDS…/
Thank you for your interest in Amnesty International. We encourage you to become a Supporting Amnesty International Organization and support Amnesty’s important work.
For more information please
call Amnesty International’s press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413
5566 or visit our website at http://www.amnesty.org
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a “time”, yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a time, yet It cannot be destroyed => Wolverine
