The Equal Rights Trust has been involved in promoting improved protection from discrimination in Kenya since 2009. Our work involves empowering civil society to campaign for the adoption of equality legislation, supporting organisations working for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) persons and improving access to justice for victims of discrimination.
Highlights of our impact include:
- Publishing In the Spirit of Harambee: Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Kenya, developing the case for the adoption of comprehensive equality legislation;
- Establishing a ground-breaking community level legal assistance programme for women victims of discrimination, which provided advice to over 4000 women.
- Working with civil society to ensure that the National Gender and Equality Commission has a mandate to combat all forms of discrimination;
- Helping to establish the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental organisation which uses litigation and advocacy to promote LGBTI rights.
In early 2015, we conducted in-depth interviews with women who have been affected by Kenya's gender discriminatory nationality law before the law was reformed in 2010. These interviews were used as part of a comparative study involving research in several countries - we published our findings in My Children's Future: Ending Gender Discrimination in Nationality Laws.
