Rwandan delegates who reviewed the country's pre-draft...

Rwandan delegates who reviewed the country's pre-draft constitution in a national constitutional conference over the weekend rejected a proposal to abolish the death penalty. The National Human Rights Commission had recommended the abolition of the death penalty currently in force under Rwandan criminal law. However a vast majority of Rwandans consulted between January and June 2002 had endorsed the maintenance of capital punishment. The 700 delegates from all strata of society and the diaspora, who concluded a three-day conference in Kigali, will submit a final draft proposal for a new constitution to the cabinet in November, then to the National Assembly in December for adoption. A referendum on the new constitution will be held in the first quarter of 2003. The idea of providing Rwanda with a new constitution after the 1994 genocide was mooted in December 1999 with the setting up of the Legal and Constitutional Commission. Between July and December 2001 the commission undertook an information, sensitisation and mobilisation campaign on the constitution to enable all sectors of society to give ideas and proposals between January and June 2002. The synthesis of these ideas was produced in the form of a pre-draft constitution, which was then evaluated by the same social groups before the final version was tabled for discussion during the national constitutional conference.