Emmanuel Nibishaka

Emmanuel's leadership journey started early, when he was in high school he visited almost all secondary schools in Rwanda, working hand-in-hand with authorities and the Ministry of Education leading a national campaign to fight against HIV in schools. This experience taught him that he too was capable of playing a significant role in society. When he went to South Africa, he started off leading refugee communities in the fight against HIV and he and his team initiated a program with Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa to mount campaigns among migrant communities. He coordinated this program when he was in his first year of university and also managed to connect with the Arch bishop Desmond Tutu HIV Center. This took place around the same time as xenophobic violence in South Africa and as a result he was eventually elected into SRC at the University of Pretoria representing international students. Currently, Emmanuel is an academic at the University of Pretoria, teaching International Relations in the Department of Political Sciences. He is also completing his second doctorate in Public Policy and International Affairs, specializing in Security and Intelligence Studies. He previously served as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) since July 2019, and as the Secretary General of the National Human Rights Commission (NCHR), Republic of Rwanda (2017-2019). In the past, he conducted research in areas of peacekeeping, conflict prevention and African security and has worked as a researcher at the Pretoria based Institute for Security Studies in its Security Sector Governance Programme (SSG), Peace Mission Programme (covering DRC, Ivory Coast, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and Central African Republic) and later in the African Security Analysis Programme. He also led the International Politics programme of the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, Southern Africa’s Office in Johannesburg before joining the Diplomatic Services of the Government of Rwanda in 2013, starting as the First Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations in New York (2013-2017).