Keynote Address - Justice Isaac Lenaola, Supreme Court of Kenya, Judge of the Residual Special Court of Sierra Leone, President of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (iARMJ)
Isaac Lenaola
Stephanie Stobbe
Protection of Refugees in the Horn of Africa under a International Human Rights Legal Framework: A
Reflection of Kenyas Refugee Protection System
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol are the core international
instruments for the protection of refugees. This framework is complemented by a host of other international
instruments. Approximately 200,000 people are displaced due to climatic conditions. These people do not fall
under the definition of a refugee as stipulated in the 1951 Convention. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine
how international human rights law has been utilized in the protection of displaced persons who do not fall
within the definition of a refugee, examine how the international, regional and domestic law can protect the
fundamental rights and liberties of displaced persons within the host countries with a focus on Kenya. The
paper will also analyze the racial discrimination against displaced persons from the Horn of Africa, noting that
three of the ten most neglected displacements come from the Horn of Africa.
