On November 17th, Dreikönigsaktion – Hilfswerk der Katholischen Jungschar (DKA Austria) and CCIG organized an online meeting for local civil society actors from Kenya. This meeting was provided as an opportunity to reflect on their experiences with the UPR of Kenya in 2025, evaluate progress, and explore new strategies to ensure that UPR recommendations are effectively implemented in their communities. It also served as a space to assess the relevance of the training and technical support provided to them.
In fact, from November 2024 to October 2025, as part of the Human Rights Capacity-Building Project executed by CCIG and DKA Austria, local partners from Kenya had participated in an online training course on United Nations (UN) system for the protection of human rights and then actively engaged in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, including delivering an oral statement in the UN Human Rights Council.
The Kenyan civil society actors who attended the meeting represented three organizations: Community Education and Empowerment Centre (CEEC), Rescue Dada Centre, and New Life Mwangaza Rehabilitation Center (NLMRC). Each of these organizations works within diverse thematic areas relevant to their communities, such as gender-based violence, alcoholic addiction, and children and adolescents’ rights.
We were glad to hear their feedback on project activities and how the training and technical support sessions have been helpful to them. They also shared how they become aware that their ongoing activities contribute to implementing UPR recommendations, and discussed possible follow-up actions. Together, we explored opportunities for UPR monitoring follow-up, responding to their questions and considering how we might collaborate in the future.
“These training sessions were relevant because I did not know about the UPR and the possibility to raise our voices in such a high-level international context.”
“I appreciate the fact that we are working together as partners.”
“The drafting of the oral statement initially looked very hard, but then the CCIG sessions helped a lot to accomplish the work with a reasonable effort.”
“The boys we work with were sensitized, so they can become accountable leaders. We were empowering them with information.”
Following this conversation, a brief overview of the UPR follow-up and monitoring process was presented to the participants. It was emphasized that the UPR calls attention to human rights issues, and that an appropriate follow-up plan helps raise awareness of these issues and their respective recommendations, while contributing to implementation. The process of monitoring was also explained as a tool for systematic assessment of both progress and challenges during implementation, and for preparing the ground for the next UPR submission. For this reason, it is important to identify recommendations that are relevant and where expertise exists, and to see this as an opportunity to go deeper into the process.
“This presentation was eye opening to me.”
“It is great to see that the UPR recommendations addressed to Kenya align with our priorities as local organizations.”
“Learning about the UPR is empowering and I am wondering how we can make more people know about it and how we can put pressure on the government to implement it.”
We are pleased that this meeting was a space to provide updates on how local civil society actors are demonstrating the impact and outcomes of these capacity-building actions, and to help strategize follow-up activities at the local level. Even more encouraging was their willingness to work for better implementation by requesting additional training and continuing their engagement with the UPR process, through increased dissemination and sensitization, as well as concrete support to UPR recommendations’ implementation and monitoring.