The Justice and Human Rights Programme seeks to foster safer communities, promote human rights and improve the system of justice in Kenya. In particular the programme works to: advance access to justice for disadvantaged and marginalized children and young people in Kenya; promote crime prevention among young people and improve the effectiveness of the justice system in the rehabilitation and restoration of young offenders; and inculcate the respect for human rights and promote human rights principles as the basis for peace and development.

The JHR programme conducts various projects to meet the programme objectives within the following strategies:

 Advocacy around the reform of policy, legislation and practice with regard to justice and human rights.
 Community Awareness, Education & Capacity Building on Crime Prevention, Restorative Justice,
 Children’s Rights & Human Rights.
 Facilitating access to justice and related rights services for children and young people in difficult circumstances.

Sample past and ongoing projects under the Justice and Human Rights Programme

Juvenile Justice Project
Youth Alive! Kenya has been implementing a Juvenile Justice Project in partnership with the Department of Children Services and with support from ActionAid International Kenya, GOAL Ireland Kenya, the Finnish NGO Foundation for Human Rights (KIOS) and the Safaricom Foundation. The project seeks to promote an effective juvenile justice system in Kenya bent on restoration of young offenders by improving the quality of institutional rehabilitation while strengthening community linkages to support reintegration of discharged offenders. Some of the activity components under this project include:

Provision of Legal Aid
The direct legal aid services to children within Nairobi and Kisumu towns constitute an array of services from assessment of legal needs, representation before a court of law to tracing of witnesses for children coming into the conflict with the law.

Partnership with the Prisons Departments
Our partnership with the prison department dates back to January 2009 when Youth Alive Kenya organized an Annual Advocacy Workshop to discuss necessary amendments to the Children Act 2001, the OVC policy and their relationship with the Borstal Institutions Act. Consequently, Youth Alive! Kenya was invited join the Board of Visitors of the Borstal Institutions. Since then, Youth Alive! Kenya has had an opportunity to participate in the review of cases for the boys in the institutions and make recommendations to the institutions. In 2010, we trained the staff from Shikusa and Shimo la Tewa borstal institutions. The training focused on Children’s rights and Rights-Based Service Delivery for Children in Custodial Care.

The Youth Alive! Kenya publication of Best Practice Resource Guide on Rights-Based Service Delivery for Children in Custodial Care can be accessed from our publications section.

Involvement with Police officers, children officers and probation officers
Youth Alive! Kenya conducts periodic trainings and workshops for police officers, children officers and probation officers. The objective is to bring together stakeholders whose line of work involves working with children in the justice system. During these workshops we seek to identify interventions, mechanisms and structures that address violence against children, share best practices and impart knowledge on the local and international laws applicable in Kenya. These forums also serve to create partnerships and linkages towards collaborative efforts to combat violence against children.

Other Projects under the Justice & Human Rights programme are the:

Diversion Project
Youth Alive! Kenya was one of the key NGO partners working with government agencies to implement the Diversion Project that sought to ensure the protection of children from inappropriate institutionalisation and demonstrate a viable alternative to custodial care and in a way to influence the practices and policies of key government and non-governmental agencies at regional and national levels. Youth Alive! Kenya’s role was to provide policy advice and administrative assistance to the District Teams.

The Capacity Strengthening of Statutory Custodial Institutions in Child Protection Project
Popularly known as the Child Protection project, this project works to improve the capacity of statutory institutions in which YAK works to better handle child protection issues as well as support the institutions to reintegrate back to the community children who have completed the rehabilitation programmes.

Towards a new constitution – Tunahusika Project
One of our key objectives in the Justice and Human Rights Programme is to empower the youth to participate in the national processes. Upon the launch of the Harmonized Draft Constitution (HDC), Youth Alive! Kenya sensitized the youth in the low income areas within Nairobi and Kisumu holding dialogue circles aimed at sensitising the youth on the provisions of the HDC so that they could make informed decisions and respond to the Committee of Experts call for the members of the public to submit memoranda on the areas of concern. From the dialogue circles, we submitted a memorandum to the Committee of Experts and addressed pertinent issues from the provisions on the Executive Power, Regional Governments and the legislature.

In 2010 during the debate on a new constitution for Kenya we participated in civic education to enlighten young people on the content of the draft/proposed new constitution so that they could vote wisely. We prepared children and the youth on their role in decision making and encouraged the youth to register as voters and participate in the referendum on 4th August 2010. Indeed, during this period the policy brief- Imprint focused on the constitution making process. (Available in the publications section)