Successful first dialogue-day between CSOs and Governement in Kenya
On 13-14 July 2015, UPR Info, thanks to the support of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nairobi, and together with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, organised a “Coordination Meeting for UPR stakeholders”.
The July meeting was the climax of an eight-month project that started in December 2014 with the Pre-sessions on Kenya, continued in March 2015 in Nairobi with a workshop for CSOs and will continue in 2017 with the mid-term report of Kenya.
It is the first workshop of this kind that UPR Info successfully organises, similar sessions will be organised in the coming months in Armenia, Mongolia and Malawi among others.
The meeting aimed to create space for a cooperative dialogue between civil society organisations (CSOs) and Government representatives, a space to meet and discuss the way forward, and the possibility of securing partnerships to ensure an effective and inclusive process of implementation of UPR recommendations in Kenya.
The Coordination Meeting took place over two days: on the first day a workshop was held for CSOs to follow-up on the March meeting, where the implementation plan and indicators for UPR recommendations were discussed and updated. A parallel session aimed to train Government representatives on the UPR, and prepare them for a dialogue with CSOs.
Once all stakeholders were more aware of what they could gain through partnerships with all actors, a bilateral dialogue was organised on the second day for CSOs and Government representatives to discuss the way forward, including identifying the opportunities for cooperation on how to implement UPR recommendations on the ground.
Overall, 50 civil society members and over 15 Government representatives participated in the event. This meeting is only the first step of a long-term cooperation among the different stakeholders for the implementation of UPR recommendations. Government representatives and CSOs were able to constructively discuss and eventually agreed to continue the discussion in September in order to finalise a matrix for UPR implementation.
The productive dialogue that took place during the Coordination Meeting shows once more the potentiality that the UPR mechanism offers in terms of cooperation among the different stakeholders that want to engage with the process. UPR of Kenya was a good exemple during the first cycle, and so it will be during the second cycle.
UPR Info will closely follow up with its partners on the ground and will continue to support the different stakeholders in the implementation of UPR recommendations in Kenya.
For more detailed information about the project please read the report available here.