Rwanda’s human rights failings exposed in Commonwealth bid

Jarrod Rudd
Nov. 27, 2009
8:50am
In 2007 Rwanda applied to be a part of the Commonwealth. They were previously a Belgium colony and only recently switched from being French to English-speaking. Now a lot of people don’t know how to feel about the prospect of them joining. They say that the move will damage the union’s reputation for upholding human rights and the rule of law. Rwanda says that they have improved their genocide situation and it wouldn’t be a problem anymore if they were to join. The government is skeptical because of reports and statements made by Human Rights Watch which claims censorship regarding genocide, including harassing independent media outlets and journalist, as well as curtailing freedom of speech, undermining democratic rights and repeatedly making repeated incursions into the Democratic Republic Congo during the last 15 years.

This is strange but kind of good I think. I don’t know if Rwanda is trying to improve or what but it seems that if they join this union then they are willing to try and end the genocide that occurs there. The government does have a point to question the intentions of why they want to join though, considering the fact of the history. I don’t necessarily think the move will damage anything, I just think that it was cause both parties to do a little work to have everything go smoothly. Over all though this article was very informing to some of the problems people are still having and gives good explanations to them.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/security_briefings/231109