PRESS CONFERENCE BY RWANDA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY RWANDA

Christine Umutoni, Assistant to the Ministers in the Office of the President of Rwanda, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning that the genocide in her country had changed its population; women now accounted for 70 per cent of the population. However, due to tradition, women had no tools to deal with the responsibilities of their new roles.

Numerous initiatives were under way in Rwanda to support women, and the nation move from conflict and genocide towards development, she said. Rwandan women had organized the first pan-African conference on women in December. Participants had been able to view first hand the consequences of genocide in Rwanda and to see the efforts to improve the situation in that country. Also, work was under way to implement decisions made at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Structures to implement decisions taken at Beijing were being established at the governmental level and in the communities.

Special support must be given to Rwandan women, as they had assumed greater responsibilities from positions of vulnerability, she said. It was hoped that the United Nations would assist Rwanda in pursuing its domestic initiatives and achieving internationally agreed upon goals. The United Nations should actively support Rwandan programmes to improve the status of women, such as increasing their access to education and roles in decision- making. Rwanda had established a fund to assist survivors of genocide, particularly women and children. It was hoped the international community would lend its support to the fund.

Also, the international community must help ensure that those people responsible for crimes in Rwanda were brought to justice. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda should make a greater effort to that end, as Rwanda worked to develop and revise its legal system.

A correspondent asked what specific actions the United Nations could take to support women in Rwanda. Mrs. Umutoni said the United Nations could work with governments to ensure the success of programmes for women. Also, United Nations bodies could establish criteria and demand that certain standards be met before they implemented programmes in specific countries. United Nations agencies should place priority on women's projects, and they should push governments to make parallel progress. The press could do much to inform the public of Rwanda's movement into the post-conflict stage.

Asked if she linked judicial reform with affirmative action initiatives, Mrs. Umutoni said that the two issues were separate. Judicial reforms were needed to ensure that those responsible for crimes were brought to justice.

Rwanda Press Conference - 2 - 24 October 1997

The United Nations should support efforts to ensure that crimes could not be committed with impunity. Affirmative action was a broader matter. It was about encouraging women and ensuring their position was enhanced. The Government must embrace affirmative action as an operating principle, and standards for the inclusion of women must be set. Women were an untapped resource that could contribute to economic development in Rwanda and other African countries. That work force must be utilized, and women's economic situations must be improved. The international community should work to sensitize governments to those realities.

Although Rwanda had been a country in conflict, it was now in the post- conflict phase, she said. That must be understood or the current efforts of the people, to move towards development, would not be understood. The press must place the situation in Rwanda in the proper context, thus assisting it in achieving its goals.

Asked about current laws regulating ownership of property, Mrs. Umutoni said women's right to own property was being reviewed as part of the legal reform. Under traditional systems, women had not been allowed to own property. Already, property laws had been redrafted to ensure that women could inherit property. That law would soon be considered by the Parliament.

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