NHRC Chairperson Providence Umurungi
Providence Umurungi, as chairperson of the National Commission for Human Rights will at 3PM, this afternoon, present to both Parliaments (Chamber of deputies and Senate) the commission’s annual report 2023/2024 & action plan 2024/2025.
Let’s take flashback on the key aspects the previous report 2022/2023 and action plan 2023/2024 presented in November 2023 showed significant progress in human rights protection.
The commission received and followed up on complaints of human rights violations, and monitored the observance of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in 5 camps and 3 transit camps, the rights of people with disabilities in families and in 36 institutions.
For example, out of the 904 complaints followed up, 711 complaints (78.6%) were resolved, 138 (15.3%) have been submitted to the relevant authorities for resolution, and 55 (6.1%) are still under investigation.
The Commission also investigated the respect of human rights among persons with disabilities in centres for persons with disabilities and their families; the respect of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Rwanda; and the respect of the rights of people who have been displaced because of natural disasters.
The Commission found that the rights of persons with disabilities are respected in their care centres and their families because they live in safe places, they are given adequate food, clothing, and medical treatment; everyone studies according to their ability levels, and they are registered in civil status registers.
Nevertheless, the Commission found that there are still challenges arising from the limited number of specialized healthcare services provided under the “Mutuelle de Santé” health insurance scheme. It then recommended that the Ministry of Health and other health services for persons with disabilities, including prostheses and orthoses, to the list of health services covered by community based health insurance- “Mutuelle de Santé”
Refugees and Asylum Seekers:
While Rwanda has seen negative propaganda on its offer to host refugees and asylum seekers from the UK, the country remains a ‘second home’ for many refugees in the region and asylum seekers from different war-and-conflict torn parts of Africa- especially Sudanese, Eritreans, Somalis, Ethiopians, and South Sudan nationals who were trapped in Libya along their route to Europe.
The first group of 66 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya arrived in Rwanda in September 2019. Since then, more than 2,400 others have been received and 1,835 among them were resettled to third countries.
Evaluating the status of refugees, the Commission found that the social and political rights of refugees and asylum seekers are respected.
For instance, they are free to move as they want, they are provided with refugee identity documents, and their children are registered in civil status registers.
It also found that the economic, social, and cultural rights are respected among refugees and asylum seekers, because they get adequate food and drinking water, with particular attention to special cases in refugee camps, including those of children and breastfeeding and pregnant women.
Despite the commission showing that refugees and asylum seekers have decent shelters, medical services, and their children go to school, it found the persistent problems of the lack of vocational education schools and the fact that not all persons with disabilities are given prostheses and thus recommended that the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management (MINEMA) to address these two issues urgently.
Prison’s overcrowding, torture and cruel treatment:
The Commission monitored 14 correctional facilities, 100 RIB custodies, 28 transit centres, 3 rehabilitation centres, 3 psychiatric hospitals and 1 mental health care center, 10 elderly centers and 4 Impinganzima homes for widows of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis to find out how human rights are respected.
The Commission found that there were 86,274 inmates in 14 correctional facilities monitored while their occupancy capacity was 61, 300.
The percentage of inmates in correctional facilities was 140,7%, meaning that they were overcrowded at 40,7%. The overcrowded correctional facilities were recorded in the correctional facilities locarted in Bugesera, Gicumbi, Huye, Muhanga, Musanze, Nyanza, Nyarugenge, Rubavu, and Rusizi district.
Rwanda Justice sector has announced plans to reduce prison populations through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), plea deal bargain and offering options of serving a sentence outside jail but with a monitoring device on the convicted person.
Though the latter has not been implemented yet, the Ombudsman’s annual report 2023-2024 (presented last week) shows the implementation of the ADR model has played a significant role in reducing the number of cases that go to court.
Delayed Justice:
Though the commission found that inmates were not subjected to torture or any other forms of ill-treatment, all correctional facilities have detainees’ vehicles, inmates have a right to food, medical treatment, visits and recreation; issues of justice needed to be addressed.
For instance, it found that cases are delayed in courts, the inmates whose cases have been postponed more than twice, and the inmates who were still detained despite having completed their sentences.
Inside the 100 Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) custodies that were monitored, the Commission found that there were 5, 546 detainees whose rights to adequate standards of living were respected, however, there was an urgent need to solve the medical treatment for detainees without medical insurance and the limited budget allocated to caring for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children living with their mothers in RIB custody cells.
