Equality and Anti-Discrimination

The KHRC has always worked with minority, marginalized and disadvantaged groups to enable them, in their own way, articulate, defend and realize their human rights be they civil, political, economic, social and cultural. One such group is Kenya’s LGBTI community which includes gender and sexual minorities, that is, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) persons. The KHRC and LGBTI Organizations’ continue to receive cases of human rights abuses against the LGBTI persons.

Once a neglected issue in political discourse, citizenship has now emerged as a central concern. It has become a highly contested conceptual territory as individuals are less defined as members of social class and more as citizens. As the prominence of dialogue on citizenship increases, so have its challenges. Decades of associating citizenship with human rights may have elevated its profile, but has not liberated citizenship from politics and violations.

In general, Kenya has a strong record of ratifying major international and regional human rights instruments. It is a party to six of the seven core UN human rights treaties, with the exception being the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), in partnership with the Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance (RHRA), commissioned this case study as part of its campaign to publicise the negative effects of criminalization of abortion in Kenya.