Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the current human rights situation in Rwanda.

Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with respect for the rule of law. The World Justice Projects Rule of Law index ranks Rwanda top in African and amongst low income countries for order and security. Rwanda has a strong record on economic and social rights, promotion of gender equality, and protecting the rights of migrants. We continue to have concerns about restrictions to political rights, media freedoms, and civic space. We raise these with the Government of Rwanda through the British High Commission in Kigali and at Ministerial level, most recently in January 2022. We firmly believe that civil society and opposition parties must be able to operate freely, holding the Government to account and contributing to the debate on how Rwanda should be governed.