Oxfam says debt service requirements violate human rights

The NGO, Oxfam International, has called for Rwanda's multilateral and bilateral creditors "to take bold steps to alleviate Rwanda's debt burden", not just as a development requirement but also as a human rights imperative. In a report received by IRIN, Oxfam International said that with development challenges as huge as those in Rwanda, "not only is the prioritisation of creditors' claims over children's lives a human rights violation, it is also inconsistent with donor programmes aimed at promoting peace and development".

The report lambasted the fact that US $42 million worth of debt-service payments - falling due in 1998 mostly to multilateral creditors - was more than 10 times Rwanda's operational health-sector budget. Rwanda last year paid out US $35 million in debt- service, one quarter of its entire budget. "Debt directly limits the provision of basic life necessities: thousands of people do not have access to clean water; children die of diarrhoea and other preventable diseases; many people do not have access
to healthcare. These are violations of human rights," the report said. While acknowledging that debt relief alone was not the answer to Rwanda's challenges, and the importance of ensuring the government spent any savings accrued from debt relief on priority social sectors rather than military operations, Oxfam said it was "essential that the international community uses fast and deep debt relief as part of a wider strategy of building peace, reducing poverty and fostering greater respect for human rights".

Chief Justice tasked with increasing efficiency, ending corruption Rwanda's new Chief Justice, Simeon Rwagasore, and five other high-ranking judges, sworn in last week, were called on by President Pasteur Bizimungu to strengthen the judicial system countrywide, fight corruption within the system and look for new ways of tackling the enormous number of outstanding genocide trials, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported. The
five judges sworn in alongside Rwagasore were: President of the
Constitutional Court Pierre Ndorimana; President of the State Council Louis Marie Mugenzi; President of the Cassation Court Hodari Nsinga; President of Courts and Tribunals Tharcisse Karugarama; and President of the Accounts Court Marie-Jose Mukandamage.