The Government of Rwanda has rejected the report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) accusing the country of mistreating gays and transgender people, sex workers and street children.

The recently released report titled ‘Rwanda: Round Ups-Linked to Commonwealth Meeting’ reads that Rwandan authorities rounded up and arbitrarily detained over a dozen gay and transgender people, sex workers, street children, and others in the months before a planned The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that was postponed due to COVID-19 related restrictions.

The report shows they were held in a transit center in Gikondo commonly known as ‘Kwa Kabuga’.

Following the release of the report; the Spokesperson of the Government of Rwanda, Yolande Makolo has via Twitter handle refuted the accusations noting that they are part of planned and unfounded allegations meant to tarnish the country’s reputation.

“HRW’s report on Rwanda is a calculated attempt to harm a strategic sector of our economy with fabricated allegations. The sabotage won’t work because the allegations are not true. Rwanda does not discriminate, in law, policy or practice, against sexual or gender orientation,” she said.

HRW has been banned on Rwanda’s land three years ago after series of false reports accusing Rwanda of abusing rights of targeted groups of people.

Before halting partnership with HRW in 2018, the organization released a report dubbed ‘All Thieves Must Be Killed “alleging that 37 people were killed by police officers, soldiers, reservists and members of the District Administration Security Support Organ (DASSO) in the districts of Rubavu and Rutsiro.

It was latter established that all aforementioned individuals were alive following the investigation carried out by the National Commission for Human Rights.

Human Rights Watch has for several times been criticized for making false reports motivated by political reasons.