Mushikiwabo has been elected after she won the majority votes by the Heads of States of the OIF member states.
Mushikiwabo replaces the Canadian Michaelle Jean who had been on the helm of la Francophonie as Secretary General for the last four years.
Tag: Highlights – Home
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How Swedish Ambassador found herself at the same lunch table with Kagame
Speaking to IGIHE, Ohlson said that when she presented her credentials at the President’s Office, she was informed by Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo that she would be pleased to be sitting with her at lunch. She didn’t understand it.
To her surprise, Ohlson was seated by the president’s table whom he had never met before.
“It was very nice but I was a bit nervous because it was the first time I met him. It was when I handed over my letters of credentials.” She told IGIHE
For Ohlson, 41, new ambassador seated at the small lunch table with the President and the first Lady that was quite a new experience for her, she said.
“That was a very interesting lunch. I hadn’t prepared for any special topics to talk about since I didn’t know beforehand,” She said.
However, Ohlson said that later, the luncheon was a good opportunity to discuss with the President about pertinent subjects.
She says that it was a very interesting conversation about current political affairs and differences as well as similarities between Sweden and Rwanda.
{{Something memorable and not secret
}}Ohlson says that when the waiters came to ask them to stand up and go to the dessert table, the president said he did not want any dessert. For a second she must have looked very disappointed, because she had seen all the nice Rwandan fruits and had waited to try some. But she was definitely not going to take off for the dessert table alone.
“I was not sure about the protocol! I saw that he noted the disappointed look in my face, and he smiled and immediately said, ‘No, of course we will have dessert, let’s go’. To me, that was a little friendly gesture to a nervous young ambassador,” She says.
{{I didn’t feel physically intimidated
}}Ohlson says being at lunch with five people around the table was a big day. She had never gone to the ceremony of the credentials before.
“I didn’t think of any intimidation or anything like that. It was just a very nice lunch. I was happy and relieved I had managed to do the protocol around the ceremony,” she says.
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Kagame, Mushikiwabo in Armenia for OIF summit
Other heads of state and government are also expected in Yerevan.
The two-day summit starts on Thursday. Two candidates, Louise Mushikiwabo and Michaëlle Jean are the only ones facing off.
Michaëlle Jean has been chairing this organisation for four years after she was elected in Dakar, Senegal in 2014. She is the first woman to lead this organisation ever since it was founded.
She is facing off with Louise Mushikiwabo whose candidacy is supported by many countries as well as the African Union (AU).
Mushikiwabo gained hand upper after Canada and Quebec endorsed her candidacy.
The International Organisation of La Francophonie was created in 1970. Its mission is to embody the active solidarity between its 84 member states and governments (58 members and 26 observers), which together represent over one-third of the United Nations’ member states and account for a population of over 900 million people, including 274 million French speakers.
IOF organises political activities and actions of multilateral cooperation that benefit French-speaking populations. Its actions respect cultural and linguistic diversity and serve to promote the French language, peace and sustainable development.
Rwanda has been OIF country member since 1970. OIF figures in 2014 indicate that 274 million people speak French.
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Green Party boss to deputize parliamentary social affairs committee
Habineza was unopposed and garnered 100% vote of the parliament (78 out of 78).
He said after his victory that, “Together with others we shall work hard to advocate for the well-being of Rwandans.”
He told parliament that he has worked in different domains to uphold well-being of citizens, like in Rotaract Club where he was involved in collecting clothes and other stuff to give to people in hospitals and villages.
He has also has run a project to help genocide survivor widows of Avega in Kigali and partly worked with the Red Cross Rwanda.
“With my education in military and security studies, I did a part in human security, which makes aware of human security problems like flooding, poor housing and many more,” he told said Tuesday evening after his election.
Having been a presidential candidate and “committed to up-lifting the well-being of all Rwandans, they were glad and voted me,” he said.
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EDITORIAL: The Rwigaras have benefited from a mature judiciary
This is the usual disrespectful stance of those that seek to cast aspersions, suspicions and demonize the administration of President Kagame. It is part of an overall effort, long term, to discredit the government.
The same people claiming “their pressure” worked are the very same ones at the forefront with allegations that “Rwanda is a dictatorship”, “police state”, where “political opponents have no rights”, and every other falsehood in the book.
It leaves them seriously embarrassed and at a loss for words every time a Rwandan government institution disproves their narrative of Rwanda as “hell on earth”. So when the court grants people like the Rwigara women bail, the naysayers are stunned, their talking points blown out of the water.
It is our view that they are fighting a losing battle. It is they who ultimately will be exposed for their rank dishonesty and cynicism in propagating a narrative whose only aim is to undermine a government that has done more than any other in Rwandan history to bring about the unity of its people, and to promote equality – ethnic and gender – across all areas of life.
The fact, for those who care about facts, is that court releasing the Rwigaras to fight their case from outside was the clearest indication that Rwanda is a country of rule of law, no matter how the negativists try to spin it. An independent judiciary was seen at work, and Rwandans should rejoice in that.
The public only sees cases like the Rwigaras’, but hundreds of Rwandans across the country are benefiting from the good workings of the judiciary. None “celebrity” Rwandans too apply for, and get bail. They too ask for parole and get it, and so on. All without “pressure” from anyone.
Our view then is that if this is what it means to be in “a police state”, we will be very happy to live in such a police state.
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No need of praising Rwanda for release of Rwigaras-Minister
On release, individual entities and different people on social media welcomed the high court’s decision including the European Union.
Their release was somewhat given a different interpretation especially by those who relate their imprisonment to political reasons.
In a statement by the European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels said that Rwanda’s decision can only be commended.
“I warmly welcome the release on bail of human rights defender Diane Rwigara and her mother Adeline Rwigara by the High Court. It is a positive development that is part of a larger process that can only be commended,” the statement reads.
It also says that the European Union will continue to support Rwanda in its efforts to promote fundamental freedoms.
On Twitter, the State Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana said that nothing so unusual happened in Rwanda’s justice that it deserved praise.
“The decision is part of the usual work of any criminal justice system Mr.! Rwanda does not need to be congratulated for having released people accused of crimes on bail. This is a sovereignty function. Nothing special!.” he tweeted.
Diane Rwigara is accused of faking the registration papers for the election and inciting public insurrection.
Her mother, Adeline Rwigara is also facing charges of inciting insurrection and promoting sectarianism.
