CHOGM Rwanda 2022– Over Ten Years of Lies, Rwandophobia, Xenophobia Come to Nothing

 

Prince Charles meets women in Rwanda as he visited different projects. 


A few months before Rwanda’s official accession into the Commonwealth in November 2009, an NGO called  Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) wrote a questionable report for the UK Parliament’s House of Lord denouncing the application.

 

Authored by Kenyan constitutional expert Professor Yash Pal Ghai, the report said Rwanda didn’t meet the requirements of the 1991 Harare Declaration which expresses the Commonwealth’s interest in international understanding, co-operation and world peace. The document contained many other allegations that have been recycled to date.

 

The media at the time were falling over each other for that story.

 

But that didn’t stop the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago held on November 29 that year, to nod to Rwanda’s entry.

 

Nearly thirteen years later, President Paul Kagame will this week accept the Chairmanship of the 54-member bloc for next two years, at lavish CHOGM 2022 ceremonies ongoing in Rwanda.

 

More than 6,000 delegates have descended on Kigali for various activities including the People’s forum, youth and woman gatherings. A golf tournament, trade fair and street parties are scheduled to happen in Kigali growing Car-free zones.

 

The Rwandan business community is reaping big from the flood of guests ready to part with cash for good and services. There will also be a high-level gathering of the executives from the Commonwealth, and elsewhere as they will be keen to tap from this huge market.

 

Prince Charles, who is preparing to take over the British monarchy, will represent Queen Elizabeth as she has retreated from international travel due to declining health.

 

UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Australian newly elected counterpart Anthony Albanese, - all major international players, have confirmed they will be in Kigali.

 

What that means, in short, is no one from the Commonwealth family would want to miss. Further to that, it will be one of the first major international gatherings since COVID-19 ravaged the world.

 

In the reported highlighted above, the author partly wrote; “It would seem that for a variety of reasons the Rwanda government, which maintains a large army, has made military incursions abroad, particularly into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”, wrote Kenyan constitutional expert Professor Yash Pal Ghai, on page 12.

 

“Rwanda’s intervention has been a major source of instability in the DRC, and has caused great suffering to communities living there, particularly the eastern part”, the report added

 

It is by coincidence that CHOGM 2020 is taking place as conflict flares again in eastern Congo. The same fabrications and lies from 2009, are playing out even today.

 

The same NGO also made a submission to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights about whole list of allegations. The group has filed with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a process through which all UN Member States are provided the opportunity to review the human rights records of all other Member States.

 

There is very little difference between the inflammatory allegations that NGO then and what was published released in the subsequent years. Some of the allegations border to outright xenophobia against an entire nation.

 

However, despite the dirt, CHOGM 2020 is taking place in Rwanda. 

 

In message to arriving delegates, host leader Kagame said on June 14 that Rwanda is "pleased to welcome all delegates and participants to Kigali for a safe and productive CHOGM Rwanda 2022.”

 

Discussions will be on a number of current global challenges including climate emergency as a result of climate change. Some Commonwealth members may see their nations disappear due to rising seas and oceans, if action is slow.

 

Other issues to be discussed by the Heads of Government include youth and job creation, especially digital affiliated jobs. They will also discuss pandemic recovery and resilience and the impact of geopolitical situation, with the war in Ukraine and its impact on inflation, especially in developing countries.

 

In a would that is increasingly becoming ever more nationalistic as right-wing political forces take over, CHOGM Rwanda 2020 is one such of the few fora where sanity may prevail for the betterment of humankind.

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