A/HRC/17/4 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), have been submitted to the Rwandan Cabinet for approval, and all will be submitted to the relevant Committees before the end of June 2011. 8. The delegation stated that Rwanda had made constitutional guarantees to the promotion and protection of human rights, the rule of law, good governance, zero tolerance of all forms of corruption, social and political cohesion, and national reconciliation as pillars of its development goals. It has made steady progress since the 1994 genocide and hoped, with support and encouragement from the international community, to even do better in the years to come. The delegation stated that in 1994, Rwanda had no cash economy as all national coffers had been looted, human and physical infrastructure had been destroyed, insecurity was rampant, and there was just death and destruction everywhere. Since then, Rwanda has reconstructed its social, political and economic portfolios, and was now a country of hope for a bright future for its citizens. The delegation thanked all partner States and friends for having been part of this recovery success. 9. The delegation pointed out some of Rwanda’s achievements, including the setting up of the National Commission for Human Rights which fulfils the Paris Principles and which has acquired “A” status, the Child Rights Observatory and the Commission for Children’s Rights, which was awaiting approval from the Cabinet and would soon be operational, the empowerment of women, which has made Rwanda’s women parliamentary representation the first in the world in terms of numbers, the setting up of the Gender Observatory and the Gender Monitoring Office, the National Women’s Commission, the National Commission for People with Disabilities, sustained economic growth of 5 to 8.5 per cent over the past 10 years, the setting up and maintaining of the health insurance programme (mutuelle de santé), which has enabled every citizen to have health insurance, and the free and compulsory universal Nine-Year Basic Education (9YBE) programme. The delegation stated that plans were under way to raise free universal education from 9 to 12 years. 10. The delegation stated that under the justice portfolio, Rwanda has put in place Access to Justice Bureaux (maisons d’accès à la justice) (MAJ) in each of the 30 districts in the country with the aim of providing free legal-aid services to vulnerable people. The Government now allocates national budget funds for the provision of legal aid, a service that was previously only funded by NGOs in the justice sector. 11. The delegation stated that amendments have been made to the Penal Code to provided for alternative sentencing, such as community work (travaux d’intérêt général) (TIG) and fines to replace long prison sentences, and financial restitution to replace long prisons term, when financial crimes are involved. 12. The reforms have been made and prison numbers have been reduced drastically, resulting in the closure of four prison facilities. Instead, a children’s rehabilitation centre and a modern prison facility with international standards have been set up, and plans are under way to close more prison facilities and build a few modern regional prison facilities that meet international standards. With these policies in place, the delegation believed that by 2015, Rwanda would have the smallest number of prisoners in the region, if not on the entire continent, due mainly to the fact that most of the genocide prisoners sentenced in gacaca courts would be reintegrated into their communities after serving their sentences. 13. The delegation stated that while the gacaca courts have come under criticism from certain quarters, they have served Rwanda very well: some 1.5 million dossiers have been judged, but today only about 38,000 genocide convicts were in prisons across the country; the rest have been reintegrated into their communities and are living harmoniously with their neighbours. There have not been any revenge killings in the communities, and ex- 4