African Great Lakes Observer

Report on Rwanda s Application for Membership of the Commonwealth: An assessment against Core Criteria ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments on this report: “We should not even say that Rwanda made an application to join the Commonwealth. In fact, it’s Kagame who is joining the Commonwealth, not Rwanda as a nation. What is happening in Rwanda is that a minority cannot govern without human rights violations. Anyone who condemned or did not support Kagame’s war is now in jail in Rwanda under the gacaca courts system. Others have fled the country and are still fleeing now. Many others Rwandans are being persecuted in their own country. Kagame is waiting for an apology from others who warn him or who wanted to help to ensure that political negotiations take place between Kagame and the former government he was fighting against. Britain continues to supply foreign aid to Kagame and his cronies with media reports highlighting...

Report on Rwanda s Application for Membership of the Commonwealth: An assessment against Core Criteria CHRI 2009 CHRI Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative working for the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation, mandated to ensure the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth. In 1987, several Commonwealth professional associations founded CHRI. They believed that while the Commonwealth provided member countries a shared set of values and legal principles from which to work and provided a forum within which to promote human rights, there was little focus on the issues of human rights within the Commonwealth. The objectives of CHRI are to promote awareness of and adherence to the Commonwealth Harare Principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and oth...