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Top UN human rights official to visit Rwanda

Top UN human rights official to visit Rwanda

Louise Arbour
The top United Nations human rights official is heading today to Rwanda on the final leg of her 12-day mission to Africa's Great Lakes Region, which previously took her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.

The top United Nations human rights official is heading today to Rwanda on the final leg of her 12-day mission to Africa's Great Lakes Region, which previously took her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.

In Rwanda, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will meet with President Paul Kagame as well as human rights advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a UN spokesperson said today.

The object of her visit, the spokesperson said, is to re-affirm the importance of protecting and promoting human rights in reconciliation and reconstruction efforts in the country, which was ravaged by a civil war and the genocide against some 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 1994.