NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 23 – At first glance it indeed sounds intriguing , “national trauma-informed” training. The legal bureau with a unique structure unlike your typical law firm, in 2020 announced their 10 years “Gender Justice Transformative justice Reform Framework”.
The blueprint highlights the multi-sectoral gaps and loopholes in accessing Justice beyond Kenya, across Africa & globally. Crevit Mulier & Co. , a legal bureau uniquely positioned to dispense fair and impartial administration of justice through litigation, research, training and publishing.
An impressive paradigm shift exploring more than the law. The legal bureau dissects the issue of transformative justice from a broad landscape, economics, finance, health, digitization, criminology, mental health, psychology and more. A multi-sectoral project aimed to strategically highlight various sectoral loopholes and seek partnerships. The 10-year framework activities are encapsulated as a 6 Step Sustainable Gender Justice Reform Project. The six steps include: Research, Survivor & community outreach, Judiciary sensitivity training, Public Prosecution & Criminal Justice System assessment, multi-sectoral SGBV committee and finally an external review prior to tabulating the policy recommendations.
“A ten-year timeline may sound like plenty of time; however, the framework has successfully completed phase 1 in our second and a half year, yet it feels as though we are barely scratching the surface.” said the Head of Research & Training, Yvonne Nzisa.
The key stakeholders supporting the noble reform project is Oxfam GB. The organization has over the years supported causes around inclusivity and diversity. “The project is strategic because it addresses patriarchal formal systems that indirectly perpetuate SGBV. A system strengthening approach is likely to give us sustainable outcomes in the fight against SGBV.” Said Blandina Bobson, Director of Programmes at Oxfam GB.
The legal bureau has achieved and made quite a number of strides including the Nairobi Women’s Hospital research on human resource sensitivity training and the proposed pioneering trauma-informed judicial training.
“The Academy is pleased to partner with Crevit Mulier & Co. in this project that will go a long way in sensitizing judges and magistrates on the significant obstacles to access to justice particularly by survivors of gender-based violence. The collaboration is in tandem with the Academy’s delegated mandate of ensuring continuous capacity building for judges and magistrates under article 172 (1) of the constitution.
The project aims to highlight, review and address a wide spectrum of policies, rulings & judgements to promote effective and efficient access to justice. It aims to identify and illustrate the daunting challenges faced daily in the struggle to access justice. A blueprint on social justice, fair representation & the judiciary reclaiming public confidence of survivors, by creating a conducive environment to access courts and responsive justice for all through training, skills enhancing & capacity building of judicial officers.
Through this first-of its kind training, the impact of judicial gender stereotypes may be reversed or challenged by introducing pragmatic gender diversity and inclusive mechanisms of training and research.
“The experience of survivors is often ignored during court proceedings; however, our theory of change draws attention to survivors as our principal stakeholders. The project evaluates the gaps and loopholes of access to justice by survivors of violence regardless of age, status, class, gender or tribe. By focusing on gender justice reform in the context of survivors, our overall aim is to improve the rate of reporting and improve public confidence in the criminal justice system. “ Founder & Manning Partner, Lanji Ouko-Awori.
Crevit Mulier & Co. highlight the gracious support of the Judiciary and particularly the Kenyan Judiciary Academy, who are implementing partners of the development of the groundbreaking judicial training apparatus. “Having Kenya Judiciary Academy (KJA) as our partner, is a profound indication of the commitment of the Judiciary in ensuring access to justice for all, and further promoting gender justice reform.”
Crevit Mulier & Co.’s research report titled, “Community-Led & Trauma-Informed Judicial Sensitivity Training; A One-Way Ticket to Gender Justice Reform” will be publicly available before the bureau begins the curriculum design and development of the project.
