Civic Action Programme
Civic Action Programme
The KHRC is convinced that human rights violations persist because of inadequate rooting of human rights in communities. This has been further exacerbated by the lack of a human rights culture in the manner that policy priorities are identified, weak institutional mechanisms that militate against the creation of a sustainable human rights respecting culture. In response to this situation, the KHRC approach is committed to creating a vibrant social movement for sustained social transformation driven by values of human rights, democracy and social justice in Kenya through: -
a) Stimulating communities to maximize their organizing capabilities by strengthening their own organizations and building both horizontal and vertical federations for the claiming, promotion and protection of human rights;
b) Working with communities at their own level on what they perceive as their entitlements and issues or concerns of value to them, and strive to hold human rights violators (state and non-state) accountable through appropriate use of legal and extra-legal means;
c) A framework of well coordinated advocacy initiatives at local, national, regional and international levels as the situation may demand;and
d) Activist research aimed at influencing policy change
The KHRC has, in its efforts towards rooting rights in communities, zoned the country into six regions namely:
(which includes North & South Rift )
Northern Region (Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, and surrounding areas),
Eastern Region (Machakos, Kitui, Makueni, Nairobi, Kibwezi, Kajiado, and central areas),
Western Region (Western and Nyanza Provinces),
Coastal Region (Mombasa, Kwale, Lamu, Kilifi, Voi, Taita Taveta areas)
Core human rights networks in the communities organize actions either meant to increase community participation in the promotion human rights or actions targeting abusers of human rights. More information on community struggles towards protection and promotion of human rights is captured under each of the regional links and has been documented in the community newsletter Mizizi ya Haki
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has taken schools as instrumental to rooting of human rights, due to the strategic position that schools occupy in the promotion of a national culture and psyche. In this context, the definition of schools as a community has been broadened to include the immediate school environment and other stakeholders in the education system, including parents, teachers, administrators and sponsors, among others.
The schools outreach was started in 2001 to introduce human rights education and sensitive practices in the school system in Kenya. In the absence of human rights content in the school curriculum in 2001 and 2002 the outreach component mainly concentrated in training teachers on how to infuse and integrate human rights in other subjects and co-curricular and extracurricular activities. Other activities included production of students and teachers human rights resource materials to support teaching and learning activities.
The situation has changed since January 2002 with the introduction of human rights in the school curriculum. The project is therefore concentrating in building the capacity of teachers to implement the curriculum by training them and producing a curriculum-based Human Rights Resource Book for Primary and Secondary Schools. The project has two components:
- Human Rights Curriculum Development
- Human rights action in schools
Human Rights Curriculum Development
In building the capacity of teachers to implement the newly introduced human rights subjects in the school curriculum, the KHRC began by holding a human rights curriculum development workshop to identify the learning objectives, content areas and suggestions for learning activities and resources that teachers can use in the infusion strategy. Working with the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) in a deliberate move to ‘get them closer’, a review of the human rights content of the new national curriculum unveiled by the Ministry of Education was done to identify and develop appropriate areas. This document is intended for lobbying the government for policy reforms through the Ministry of Education to adopt a more comprehensive curriculum for learning and teaching human rights at all levels of the national curriculum.
Human Rights Action in Schools
Another component of the schools outreach is the human rights action learning approach. This approach involves working with schools to link human rights education to community human rights advocacy. This aspect aims at helping the schools to identify human rights violations or violating situations in the school, community and education system, and work towards changing the situation. From the issues identified together with schools, advocacy actions are designed, some aimed at policy and legal reforms to improve school governance and access to the right to education, among other rights.