New constitution becomes effective

Rwanda's new constitution became effective on Wednesday, after President Paul Kagame signed it into law, the Rwandan News Agency (RNA) reported.

Kagame's signing of the constitution follows a referendum and a ruling by Rwanda's Supreme Court that declared the vote's final results and authorised its publication in the government's official gazette, RNA reported.

"I declare this law the supreme law of the country, replacing the law that governed Rwanda for the last nine years," the news agency quoted Kagame as saying during the ceremony held at the parliament building in the capital, Kigali.

Kagame signed versions of the new constitution in three languages: Kinyarwanda, French and English. The constitution paves way for presidential and parliamentary elections due in August and September respectively.

Since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the country had been governed under a combination of laws drawn from the country's 1991 constitution; a peace accord signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in 1993; and a declaration by Kagame's party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights said that the new constitution would inhibit multiparty pluralism and freedom of expression. It recommended that national authorities undertake measures to guarantee such rights, as had been the case with Rwanda's ratification in 1975 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.

Furthermore, the federation called on Rwanda's electoral commission to provide more time for voters to register for upcoming elections than had been allowed for the constitutional referendum. It also recommended that more polling stations be made available.
[For the federation's complete statement, available only in French, go to www.fidh.org]