Rwanda: AU Seeks Establishment Of ‘Genocide Study Centre’, Condemns Hate Speech In Nigeria, Others

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has called for the establishment of an African Centre for the Study of Genocide as part of the measures to prevent the ideology of hate speeches and genocide in the continent.

It encouraged member states to include the culture of peace, leadership, reconciliation, tolerance of diversity, togetherness, justice and democratic values in their educational curricula.

This was disclosed in its communique seen by THE WHISTLER on Thursday, arising from the council’s 1147th meeting held on 6th April 2023 in view of the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

The Rwanda genocide was described as a planned campaign of mass murder of citizens influenced by propaganda from several media outfits and political actors resulting in the death of over 800,000 civilians.

The council resolved that hate speech in any African country stands condemned while urging relevant stakeholders to create awareness on the consequences of such.

“Expresses deep concern over, and strongly condemns, the persistent trend and perpetration of the ideologies of hate, hate speech, identity-based conflicts, including religious, inter-ethnic and inter-tribal violence, xenophobia, racism, which collectively constitute drivers of the ideology of hate, hate crimes and genocide; and emphasizes the need for Member States to enhance early warning mechanisms and pay more attention to early warning signs of looming inter-tribal or inter-ethnic conflicts and to timeously prevent their escalation;

“Underlines the importance of early warning and early response in preventing hate crimes and genocide; and in this regard, underscores the need for the establishment of an African Centre for the Study of Genocide, as well as enhancing/strengthen the institutional capacities of national, regional and Continental early warning systems and mechanisms to ensure that they also include, in their scope, the scourge of ideology of hate, hate crimes and genocide;” the communique partly read.

The council further stressed the need to effectively regulate and closely monitor the misuse and abuse of media and urged African governments to adopt necessary policies to effectively monitor the media and to promote professionalism, ethical and factual reporting, as well as to effectively prevent the exploitation and abuse of the media for propagating extremist messages that incite hate crimes and genocide.

The council paid tribute to all victims of genocide in Rwanda.