CASE No - Inter-Parliamentary Union

CL/183/SR.1
ANNEX XXXI
CASE No. RW/06 - LEONARD HITIMANA - RWANDA
Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 183 rd session
(Geneva, 15 October 2008)
The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Referring to the case of Mr. Léonard Hitimana, a member of the Transitional National
Assembly of Rwanda, dissolved on 22 August 2003, who disappeared in April 2003, as outlined in the
report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/183/12(b)-R.1), and to the
resolution adopted at its 182 nd session (April 2008),
Recalling that Mr. Hitimana disappeared in the night of 7 to 8 April 2003, the day before
he was due to refute in parliament the accusations of spreading the ideology of ethnic division brought
by a parliamentary commission of inquiry in a report against his party, and in which his name was
mentioned; while the sources fear that Mr. Hitimana may have been abducted by the Rwandan
intelligence service and executed extrajudicially, the authorities have always affirmed that Mr. Hitimana,
in common with other persons, fled to a neighbouring country and that they were going to locate them
rapidly, which has nevertheless not so far happened,
Recalling its growing concern that Mr. Hitimana may have been the victim of a forced
disappearance, which is a serious violation of human rights, and noting in this respect that Rwanda has
not yet ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2006,
Considering that legislative elections were held in Rwanda in September 2008 and that the
new Chamber of Deputies was recently inaugurated,
1. Requests the Secretary General to convey its concerns in this case to the new parliamentary
authorities, inviting them to notify the Committee of their views on the subject;
2. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session,
to be held on the occasion of the 120 th Assembly of the IPU (April 2009).