Focus Media (Kigali)
4 November 2009
The Eastern African Commissioners on human rights met in Kigali to discuss measures that would enhance human rights in the region. The also gave their views on a bill of rights that would enable member states to operate on uniform way of addressing human rights.
The Eastern African Human Rights commission is set to deliver a draft containing the bill of rights to the secretariat. This is believed to boost human rights in the region.
The human rights commissioners are optimistic that the bill would be implemented soon by all member states, though key challenges lie in the unsatisfactory protection of economic, social and cultural rights in some constitutions.
Although civil and political rights are fairly covered by the constitution, they continue to inherit weaknesses in how some of the constitution protects the rights of its citizens.
Reacting to importance of the bill, Joaquine De-Mello who is the commissioner for human rights in Tanzania explained that the bill would enhance development in the region, if corrupt activities were dealt with and security instability resolved.
The Tanzanian commissioner called upon commitment from member states in facilitating the various human rights commissions in their respective countries through funding their activities. "Policy makers should enhance human rights when designing laws," she said.
De-Mello on her part pointed out the need for a national action plan from each member states showing how issues related to human rights were resolved; this she said would be achieved through the contribution from stakeholders.
Meanwhile ministers from the Eastern Africa Community have on several occasions called upon for the need of respecting human rights as a way to boost steady fast integration process from member states.
According to Robert Ssali who is the permanent secretary in the East African ministry in the country, highlighted the need for human rights commissions to address issues related to land disputes as a way to facilitate integration process.
He added that among the key barriers, were the high level of corruption practiced at the borders. "The human rights commissions should assist in stopping the vice since it affects the regions way of doing business," Ssali commented.
Justice strategies
However the rise of displaced people as a result of wars conducted by rebels in the region has been worrying, Uganda on their part say, there have been progress in settling people displaced by lord resistance rebels. Katabariwe Amooti from Uganda requested human rights to develop justice strategies that would ensure accountability for the past crime and reconciliation.
He added that Rwanda had portrayed a good image towards reconciliation, though a good number of refugees were still camping in neighboring countries.
Reacting to the Rwandan refugee issue, Commissioner Zainabu Kayitesi explained that there was an ongoing repatriation process. "The returnees are warmly welcomed home though they have to settle in camps before they are allocated houses,".
She added that a human rights officer was part of the national team in charge of repatriating Rwandan refugees of which his key role was to ensure human rights were well addressed.
Zainabu pointed out that, even if Rwanda was performing fairly in adhering to human rights, key issues still lied in the judicial process where cases of injustice mounted at the commission's desk, most of the incidents reported were from those who are jailed without clear evidence from the prosecution. This is closely followed by land disputes which are hard to solve since most of them lack legal documents hence opt for traditional ways which always result to conflicts.
Zainabu further called upon better and fair service delivery in both the education and health centers as a way to boost human rights and development in the country.
Members also criticized some of the reports issued by international human rights like Amnesty, as of no evidence based. Reacting to issue De-Mello said that some of the reports were aimed that threatening countries on their developing process, she added that some of the reports were politically engineered to freeze funds allocated on certain area of development.
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