Human Rights Café

Grassroots Activism: Criminalisation of
Human Rights Work in Kenya

Tuesday May 15th, 2018
16:00 – 18:00 hr
Stadhuis Utrecht,
Korte Minrebroederstraat 2

Peace Brigades International will be hosting a Human Rights Cafe during the Shelter City Bike Challenge Nederland 2018.
Our guest-speaker is Francis Sakwa, a grassroots human rights defender from Kenya. Francis has been fighting for social justice for more than ten years now. In the course of these struggles, he was arrested multiple times and appeared in court on trumped-up charges. At the moment Francis is staying for three months in Groningen, the Netherlands as part of the Shelter City programme. The Shelter city project is implemented by PBI. We host different HRDs throughout the year. Moreover, PBI sends teams of international observers to areas of conflict and repression to provide protective accompaniment to local human rights defenders whose lives and work are under threat.

What are the types of threats and violence that people are facing in Kenya?
The past elections of 2017 were marred by insecurities and violence, said to be carried out by men in uniform. During this Human Rights Cafe, Francis will shed light on the violations of human rights and the work he is doing to ameliorate the situation in the slums of Nairobi. He is inquiring and documenting situations of police brutality and extrajudicial killings during and after the elections. Because Francis has important information and documents about extra-legal killings, he constantly receives threats. What are the challenges of defending human rights?

These and other questions will be discussed during this event. With an extended Q&A, there will be room for attendees to ask questions as well. Opening by the Mayor of Utrecht and introduction by director of Justice and Peace Netherlands.

Entrance: Free (but a small donation would be great!)
Language: English

Want to attend? You can sign up by sending an email to: kenia@peacebrigades.nl

For all updates on this Human Rights Café and more information about the speaker click here for the Facebook event.