Centre for Applied Human Rights
Pascal Nyilibakwe
Rwanda, CAHR, Autumn 2011
Pascal Nyilibakwe is Rwandese, married father of four children. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in French literature and a certificate in audiovisual techniques for television. He worked on the Rwandan television for four years (1991 – 1994). He has experience in monitoring and documenting human rights violations and has undergone trainings in regional and international mechanisms of protection and promotion of human rights.
After the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pascal and his family fled the country and were refugees in the camps in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until 1997, when they were forced to leave the DRC because of insecurity in all eastern provinces.
In the refugee camp, Pascal was confronted with the suffering of many people and vowed to assist refugees in presenting their problems to the UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations working on refugee issues. He was elected by the provincial representative body for refugees to advocate for them at the UNHCR, humanitarian organisations and the Congolese authorities. It was a great lesson for him to struggle on three fronts: to make all sides understand the problems of refugees and to improve their conditions. It was then that he fully understood what being a refugee meant and he made a commitment to struggle for human rights.
After having returned to Rwanda, Pascal rejoined his work as a principal in a secondary school, but was soon recruited by an umbrella organisation of local development organisations (CCOAIB : Conseil de Concertation des organisations d’Appui aux Initiatives de Base) as an officer in charge of information and documentation. He worked there for six years.
In June 2004, he was recruited by LDGL (Ligue des droits de la personne dans la region des grands lacs), a human rights league in the Great Lakes region, working on human rights issues in Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda. He occupied different positions in that league during six years: as coordinator of a joint project LDGL – SIM (the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University); as an officer in charge of institutional and organisational reinforcement and human rights documentation; as a coordinator of the executive secretarial cell; and finally the Board of Directors promoted Pascal to the Executive Secretary of LDGL from April 2008. He was in charge of the coordination of all the activities of the LDGL in Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda.
As a human rights defender, and working for a human rights organisation, Pascal has faced many threats and risks. Some authorities were not happy about the reports made by LDGL and demanded Pascal to be silent or treated him as an enemy of the country working for opposition political parties or a group of Rwandese rebels, the FDLR, based in the DRC.
In 2008, Pascal faced threats from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) which did not receive well the reports made by LDGL on electoral monitoring. The NEC judged the reports very critical and not well documented, but did not prove false the information reported. This year the LDGL was refused registration. Despite this, the LDGL (through its executive secretary) continued fighting to have accreditation to observe the elections of deputies. Pascal was called by the President of NEC to come to explain and give details on the electoral report and was warned to not take part again.
In 2010, the LDGL monitored the presidential elections in Rwanda. It placed 180 observers in the country and made a short report on the election process. The LDGL organised a conference and raised some irregularities observed on the polling stations and published a press release. Pascal responded to some questions from BBC and VOA radio and both programmes were broadcast widely.
At that moment, the LDGL had initiated a process to elaborate a shadow report on the Rwandan Universal Periodic Review at the UN. The authorities considered those two reports (on elections and the Universal Periodic Review) as “unfair criticism” and began to look for ways to arrest Pascal.
When I came to the CAHR, I felt secure in this environment, far from my country and its neighbouring countries in which many Rwandese human rights defenders who fled the country are always at risk.
Reflecting on his time in York, Pascal says: “When I came to the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, I felt secure in this environment, far from my country and its neighbouring countries in which many Rwandese human rights defenders who fled the country are always at risk. During my time in York I have worked on the “European Union Guidelines for Human Rights Defenders” and based my study on one country in the Great Lakes region, Burundi. The study aims at raising awareness among those concerned for the effective implementation of this instrument and to call upon them to improve its implementation in Burundi.
After the fellowship at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, I hope to continue research in human rights as well as analysing regularly the situation of HRDs in the region. I plan to share the results of the research on Burundi with organisations involved in human rights in Rwanda and the DRC, so that they can use good practices from Burundi to improve the situation in their respective countries. I expect to do research on how some UN and regional mechanisms’ recommendations on human rights defenders are implemented by different stakeholders.”