{"id":42756,"date":"2021-01-28T12:31:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T12:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-dismisses-uk-human-rights-abuse-claims\/"},"modified":"2021-01-31T09:49:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T09:49:15","slug":"rwanda-dismisses-uk-human-rights-abuse-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-dismisses-uk-human-rights-abuse-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda dismisses UK human rights abuse claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On 25th January 2021, the Minister of Justice and State Attorney General, Johnston Busingye presented Rwanda\u2019s 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to the Human Rights Council. Minister Busingye explained that Rwanda respected human rights principles in terms of freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of press; and freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the country has been efficiently implementing recommendations received in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on some organizations that have been accusing Rwanda of harassing opposition figures and journalists; Minister Busingye explained that it is untrue because Rwanda\u2019s judiciary is independent and makes fair judgment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no prosecutions that target persons simply because they are politicians or journalists or human rights defenders, and the so-called political trials do not exist, nor are trials against journalists or human rights defenders just for being journalists or human rights defenders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>After presenting the report; UK envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland Julian Braithwaite said that Rwanda still need to implement some recommendations to improve human rights record. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United Kingdom welcomes Rwanda\u2019s strong record on economic and social rights, and promotion of gender equality. We remain concerned, however, by continued restrictions to civil and political rights and media freedom. As a member of the Commonwealth, and future Chair-in-Office, we urge Rwanda to model Commonwealth values of democracy, rule of law, and respect for human rights,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n<p>Julian Braithwaite also recommended Rwanda to: \u2018Conduct transparent, credible and independent investigations into allegations of extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture, and bring perpetrators to justice\u2019.  <\/p>\n<p>Among others, he urged Rwanda to \u2018Protect and enable journalists to work freely, without fear of retribution, and ensure that state authorities comply with the Access to Information law. Screen, identify and provide support to trafficking victims, including those held in Government transit centres\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>{{Unfounded claims}}<\/p>\n<p>Following these claims, Rwanda\u2019s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland has via twitter handle said that these recommendations are unfounded. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government of Rwanda regrets the unfounded recommendations put forward by the UK Mission in Geneva which have no basis in reality and go against established UPR peer protocol,\u201d reads the message.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd more importantly, Rwanda seeks, among other things, to improve the human rights situation on the ground. In the context of the UK&#8217;s silence regarding blatant violations of human rights elsewhere in the region, this baseless attack on a partner country is deeply unfortunate,\u201d adds the message.  <\/p>\n<p>Human rights activists usually accuse Rwanda of detaining people in unofficial military detention centers where they are tortured, harassing opposition figures and journalists. <\/p>\n<p>As he presented the UPR, Minister Busingye explained that such allegations by rights activists \u2018are unfounded and motivated by the political interest and agenda of those who advance them\u2019. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-37719 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/leta_y_u_rwanda_yamaganye_ibyatangajwe_na_ambasaderi_w_u_bwongereza_muri_loni_i_geneve_julian_braithwaite_ruvuga_ko_nta_shingiro_bifite.jpg\" alt=\"UK envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland Julian Braithwaite. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{The Government of Rwanda has denounced claims by the United Kingdom (UK) which cited gaps in respecting human rights and put forward recommendations to improve human rights in the areas of rule of law urging the country to bring to book masterminds behind extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-42756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42756"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=42756"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=42756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}