Rwanda still performs torture despite its accession to the Convention Against Torture on 15 December 2008

By Agaculama mu Ikibunda
Democracy Human Rights
Saturday, July 10, 2010

The FDU-Inkingi Party reported that Ms. Alice Muhirwa, the FDU Treasurer, who was still bleeding due to boots kicks into her stomach, was denied access to a medical doctor. On July 8th, 2010, Ms. Muhirwa fainted in the courtroom. Many requests to take her, a mother of two, to hospital after she was tortured had been turned down by the police. However, after she fainted, she was taken outside the crowded courtroom, where Ms. Ntavuka, a nurse, held her until she was taken to a hospital. Ms. Ntavuka's husband, Martin Ntavuka, is also in prison. Her lawyer had unsuccessfully attempted to arrange bail to let Ms. Muhirwa see her doctor.

We recently heard about tortures still happening in Rwanda, for example against recent arrested opposition parties leaders, journalists and lawyers.

Of course, torture is probably one of the most common forms of human rights violations, still happening today everywhere in the world. Those arrested persons held in detention frequently experience torture in many different forms.

As I formerly wrote, it is true that Rwanda did not sign or ratify the 1984 Convention against Torture (CAT).

Meanwhile, it is also true that Rwanda acceded to the Convention on 15 December 2008. An act of accession or ratification to a treaty by a State party signifies its agreement to be legally bound by the terms of a particular treaty. The act of signing provides a preliminary endorsement of the instrument but does not create a binding legal obligation. However, signing does oblige a State to refrain from acts that would defeat or undermine the treaty's objective and purpose.

This means that Rwanda’s accession to the CAT creates a legally binding obligation.

This position is supported within the treaty itself. At Article 27(1), the Convention treats ratification and accession as the same for the purposes of determining when the treaty is entered into force.

This view is also supported by the definitions used by UNICEF in its Introduction to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and adapted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (8th edition), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990 and United Nations Treaty Collection, Treaty Reference Guide,1999, available at http://untreaty.un.org/French/guide.txt.

Torture has to be and can be prevented. Human rights, medical aid and other social justice organizations have a critical role to play in denouncing torture in places of detention. There is no place for neutrality when a humanitarian worker witnesses acts of torture, because neutrality in such cases is similar to consider good and evil, or right and wrong as having the same moral weight. Human rights, medical aid and other social justice organizations have finally a critical role to play in preventing acts of torture. But, in order to do so effectively, a clear understanding of what is torture and the mechanisms available to prevent it is necessary for all these humanitarian actors.

In conclusion, if Rwanda did not sign the 1984 Convention against torture, the RPF-derived Rwandan government acceded to the Convention in 2008, but it is just a façade because these authorities still do not de facto recognize their signature, torture being still widespread in Rwanda at various levels of the judiciary system and the society. Rwandan RPF-derived authorities never respected the convention or peace agreements or truces they signed, so it is questionable to know if they really understand the definition of basic humanity.

I wish a good week-end for the ones who love the good, and a higher temperature for those voluntarily prisoners of evil!

Related Materials:
Rwanda: FDU blames police torture after Muhirwa faints in court

Rwandan Elections: Kagame Regime Orders Torture and Arrest of Opposition Candidates

RWANDA: VICTIMS OF “THE WAR ON THE OPPOSITION” ARE POLITICAL PRISONNERS

Rwanda: Bail granted to some opposition members, but silence on torture inquiry

Amakuru yaciye kuri VOA kuwa 08/07/2010 avuga ku manza z'abatavugarumwe na FPR

Horiffic tortures of opposition members by state security forces

Rwanda: Kagame tortures opposition, arrests Ingabire’s new lawyer