state of compliance with international and regional legal FRAMEWORKS FOR PROMOTION OF PEACE AND SECURITY OF WOMEN AND GIRLS; A CASE STUDY OF KENYA

Abstract

Women and girls suffer the greatest and disproportionately in conflict situations. While women and girls endure the same trauma as the rest of the population — bombings, famines, epidemics, mass executions, torture, arbitrary imprisonment, forced migration, ethnic cleansing, threats and intimidation — they are also targets of specific forms of violence and abuse, including sexual violence and exploitation. The United Nations has led the drive-in protection women and girls by guaranteeing their peace and security, especially in time of conflict, by the promulgating the four major resolutions on women peace and security (resolution 1325, resolution 1880, resolution 1889, and resolution 1830). In addition, there exists a host of four international legal instruments, treaties, and declarations, including, but not limited to CEDAW (Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls), Beijing Platform for Action, and the international bill of rights, to name but a few, all with provisions geared to protect the status of women in times of conflict. However, despite these resolutions and a number of policy and programmatic initiatives at the international, regional and national levels, the connection between international laws, national legislation and policy frameworks on the one hand and meaningful change in the lived realities of men and women affected by conflict on the other remains elusive. In Kenya, women and other vulnerable groups are still suffering from both sporadic, as well as systemic abuses which threaten their peace and security, as was evident in the times of the post-election violence in 2007, and as currently exists in various forms. The project sought to analyze the level of compliance of Kenya with the international legal framework on protection of women. The findings indicate that Kenya is a signatory to all the treaties and resolutions that promote women peace and security, but there are gaps in institutionalization, and implementation of the same, due to mind set shifts, lack of education, legal illiteracy, and capacity constraints in resources. The project further finds that efforts to resolve these conflicts and address their root causes will not succeed unless we empower all those who have suffered from them.