Kelin to Participate in the University of Pretoria Gender Week

On 28 March 2017, KELIN’s sexual and reproductive health rights Programme Manager, Ms. Saoyo Tabitha Griffith, will be speaking at the Centre for Human Rights Gender week on ‘Litigating on the forced and coerced sterilization of women in Africa’. Ms. Saoyo’s presentation will undertake a three-pronged discourse that will analyze the existing African human rights legislative framework on protection women’s rights to bodily autonomy. The session will also review reports from existing studies conducted in Uganda, Namibia and Kenya and the cases that have been petitioned in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia on forced and coerced sterilization of women living with HIV. A comparative analysis will interrogate the role that the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission and the United Nations Human Rights Committee have played in the protection of bodily autonomy and conclude by arguing that there is a need for the African Commission and African States to end all acts of forced sterilization whether committed by state or non-state actors.

The Gender Week, which is hosted by the University of Pretoria, takes place from 27th March to 31st March 2017 at the Law Faculty. The sessions target Masters students undertaking their LLM degree in human rights and democratization. The Human Rights and Democratization in Africa LLM (HRDA) course is a unique teaching program in Africa made up of students from across the continent. During the intensive one-year course the students are taught by eminent lecturers in the field of human rights. They also gain invaluable exposure by traveling across the continent to a wide variety of cross cutting learning opportunities.

Ms. Saoyo will speak alongside renowned academic scholars in the women’s rights field including Professor Rebecca Cook and LLD candidates from the University of Pretoria: Yvonne Oyieke and Mariam Kamunyu.

To contribute to the discussions on this forum follow KELIN on our social media platforms:

Twitter: @KELINkenya using hashtag #Genderweek
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya

For more information contact:
Saoyo Tabitha Griffith

Programme Manager Sexual & Reproductive Health Rights

Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN)
4th Floor, Somak Building, Mombasa Road Tel +254202515790; Cell +254790339963;

Email: tsaoyo@kelinkenya.org