of Jurists, Kenyan Chapter, (ICJ Kenya)34 in two minutes: we are a membership organization consisting of members of the Bench and Bar and are keen on promoting human rights and the rule of law in Kenya, as well as in Africa and, as Gerald [Staberock] has said, we have litigated previously around Africa on issues of human rights, particularly international political and civil rights. My presentation today is based on three objectives: one, I want to provide you with a bit of Kenya’s compliance with human rights treaty mechanisms and its responses to concluding observations by the Committee against Torture. Since I cannot talk about decisions before the Committee, I opted for the concluding observations because this is what has led us to where we are today in Kenya. Secondly, I also want to contextualize for you the constitutional and political situation in regards to the international human rights treaties. And finally, I want to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that have been mentioned by my colleague in regards to engaging with the treaty bodies, not only at a national, but also at the regional working level because that is where we have taken cases to the African Commission. is why the Special Rapporteur visited Kenya, in response to that. For example, in the western region of Kenya, known as the Mount Elgon region, there were increasing incidents of a militia that were terrorizing the residents. The conflict stemmed from land disputes amongst communities living in that area. The government decided to respond by deploying the military in order to curb the militia operations. But in the end, the military ended up perpetrating torture and enforced disappearances against residents. There are documented cases that illustrate what the military government did to violate human rights in an attempt to fight the militia.36 The Committee was concerned about the failure to investigate these allegations of torture, and particularly that the security personnel had not been taken to task. These are simply highlights. Obviously there were other, more important issues in the Concluding Observations. Nonetheless, it is important just in the context of discussing litigation. Kenya’s Legal and Political Context I am sure you know we have just recently held our 2013 general elections. We have come from a very uneasy situation in Kenya. But luckily, unlike in 2007, we did not have post-election violence. However, we still have the [International Criminal Court] matter hanging over our heads, as both the current head of state and the deputy president are actually accused before the International Criminal Court. So, it is a very interesting situation in Kenya. Kenya’s Engagement with the Human Rights Mechanisms Kenya made its report to the Committee against Torture in 2002. Based on the Concluding Observations of 2002, ICJ Kenya’s advocacy began to discuss what could be done about implementing some of the Concluding Observations that were given by the Committee. We were also reviewed by the Human Rights Committee in July last year, and our focus was also on the issue of torture. More importantly, we have made other presentations before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and also to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We had a special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution, Professor Philip Alston, who came to Kenya during a very critical time, just after the post-election violence. Kenya also submitted its second periodic universal review last year in November. It is coming up for another review before the Committee against Torture at the end of May 2013. So, in other words, Kenya has engaged at the reporting level, not necessarily on cases before the committee bodies. And finally, at the regional level, Kenya has not actively engaged with compliance review mechanisms at the African Commission level. In my view, we have paid lip service, if I may put it that way, in implementing the African Charter. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier on, Kenya is not a State Party to the Optional Protocol; we do not recognize the jurisdiction of the Committee with respect to individual complaints. And at a regional level, which is the African Commission level, there are options to file complaints, but you must obviously have exhausted all local remedies. I will give you an example of a case that was filed before the Commission: the Endorois Land Community Case, in which a decision was given in March 2010. There was a lot of celebration after the decision was rendered, despite the fact that the case went before the Commission at a very difficult time, when the judicial system was perceived as weak and not responsive. The community was able to demonstrate that they had exhausted local judicial remedies by trying to get the matter adjudicated before the local courts without much success. They did not feel like they would “obtain” justice. Kenya has moved on since the very turbulent times after 2007, and in 2008 it ushered in the constitutional review process. We now have a new constitution, which was promulgated in 2010.37 We have changed the state from a being a dualist to a monist state, which means that any [treaty] law that Kenya ratifies becomes part of our domestic law. However, the constitution requires that we must have legislation that gives us the process for how to actually go about ratifying a particular human rights treaty. What do the Concluding Observations of 2008 Say About Kenya? One is that Kenya should introduce national legislation in order to define torture and provide for appropriate remedies in line with Article 1 of the Convention. Secondly, the Committee was very concerned that there is a common practice of unlawful arrests and detention, particularly by the police. When arrests happen, there are statistics that demonstrate that the law enforcement bodies and agencies actually were taking into detention mainly people in the urban slum areas. [The victims] are beaten and subjected to torture, cruel, or degrading treatment. There are also widespread allegations of extrajudicial killings.35 That At the same time, we are undergoing judicial reforms. The institutional reform of the judiciary is very vibrant at the moment. We have seen an emergence of an independent 30