UN Committee must address plight of displaced women and girls in
Kenya
Geneva, 26 July 2007 – The UN Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women must urge the Kenyan government to adopt strong
measures to protect and promote the rights of the displaced women and girls, the
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council
(NRC) said today.
In 1984, Kenya ratified the
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and tomorrow
(Friday), the Committee will review the government’s report on its
implementation of the Convention at UN headquarters in New York. Worryingly, the
government report provides no information on women and girls displaced within
Kenya due to violence, forced evictions, or human rights abuses.
In a
shadow
report submitted to the Committee, NRC/IDMC highlights the conditions
faced by internally displaced women and girls. “Roughly 400,000 people have been
forcibly displaced in Kenya, and the lives and rights of the women and girls
among them are particularly affected,” said NRC Secretary-General Tomas Colin
Archer...
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For more information see the full report at the IDMC
Kenya Country
Page, or contact Jesse Bernstein at the IDMC in Geneva: tel. (mobile):
(41)-78-915-0978.
The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre (IDMC), established by the Norwegian Refugee Council, is the leading
non-governmental body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement
worldwide.