The ceremony of closing these three days training  on International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) that took place at ILPD from 17^th to 19^th December 2018 was officiated by the Rector of ILPD, Dr. KAYIHURA M. Didas. Human rights, Legal officers, Registrars, drafters and Social Affairs Officers from various prisons across the country (Rwanda) have all attended these training.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Kayihura emphasized on the role of the individual participant (officer) at this training in particular and the Rwanda Correctional Services as an institution in general, in regard to the respect of human rights in general and rights of prisoners in particular.  He reiterated that, where each and everyone of the trainees perfects his/her respective obligations, they will impact to the general image of the Institution of RCS but shall at the same time impact on the image of the Justice system at large. He reminded that ILPD is their home whenever it means training in Law or Law related areas and that they are always welcome for further trainings. He further took time to inform the participants how the Institute enjoys the great cooperation with RCS.

For Chief Inspector of Prisons Théogène RUSUMBA, the Legal Affairs Officer of Nyanza Prison expressed how he has benefited considerably in this training. He said that this training reminded them of their responsibilities of protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of people especially prisoners and related the obligations with not only the Rwandan Constitutional mandate but also with the International Instruments to which Rwanda is a party.

The 2018 Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS) showed that citizens’ perception on the ‘pillar of rights and civil liberties’ stands at 83.83%. This improved from 73.62% according to RGS 2012. Rwandan Government is committed to improving further and so, such trainings of the Prison Officers comes to match the talk.

The rights of detainees/prisoners and prisons conditions are of crucial importance and relevant to the domestic implementation of the CCPR. For example, during the last review of the state’s fifth periodic report (2006) at least 7 recommendations were given to the GoR relating to detention and prison conditions.

Specifically, this training aimed at raising awareness of participants on the state’s general and specific obligations under CCPR and CCPR-OP2-DP, increasing the awareness of the participants on the role of the RCS in the implementation and monitoring of treaty bodies and mechanisms’ (UPR) recommendations and raising awareness of the participants on the domestic legislation implementing the CCPR and CCPR-OP2-DP.