Judicial Officers from Eastern and Southern Africa Dialogue on HIV, Human Rights and the Law

Published on Tuesday, 29 October 2013 10:19 Over Fifty judicial officers from Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda & Zambia will participate in a Judicial Dialogue on HIV, Human Rights and the Law that takes place from the 28th – 31st of October 2013 in Nairobi. This is the first dialogue to be undertaken in Africa as one of the initiatives aimed at taking forward the recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. The workshop is organized by the Judiciary Training Institute (JTI) and KELIN in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP- Kenya) and UNAIDS.

The regional dialogue will be officially opened on the 29th of October 2013 by Ms. Nardos Bekele–Thomas, UNDP Resident Representative / UN Resident Coordinator. Hon. Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Hon. Justice Oagile Dingake of the High Court of Botswana will grace the occasion and make relevant presentations.

The regional judicial dialogue has two main objectives:

a) To provide a critical opportunity for discussion and experience-sharing between judges and magistrates from Kenya and judges from other African countries in East and Southern Africa on the complex legal and human rights issues posed by the HIV epidemic.

b) To provide an opportunity for judges and magistrates to discuss effective strategies and programmes for judicial education so as to help ensure the various judiciaries are able to make informed decisions on HIV-related human rights issues.

At the end of the dialogue it is expected that the judicial officers will have greater awareness on the role of the law and the courts in protecting the rights of people living with HIV and members of key populations.

Click here to download the Judicial Dialogue agenda

Source: KELIN Kenya