Video Advocacy and Gender Justice Training in Nairobi, Kenya
From 28 March-6 April, the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS held a ten-day video advocacy workshop in Nairobi, Kenya for gender justice activists from armed conflict situations. The training, part of a multi-year joint project to dev
elop videos and multi-media strategies to advance gender justice, was attended by 17 partners of the Women’s Initiatives from five countries- Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Kyrgyzstan.
The training included an introduction to the ‘mechanics’ of using and maintaining video cameras, recording and storing footage, story-telling through video, safety and security issues for those interviewed as well as the videographers, editing and distribution of the videos once completed. This training follows shorter video advocacy workshops held in Bukavu, eastern DRC for 13 Women’s Initiatives’ partners during the World March for Women (October 2010) and in Kampala, Uganda for seven partners from the Greater North Women’s Voices for Peace Network (December 2010).
Five video advocacy plans were developed during the Nairobi workshop, one for each country participating at the workshop on a range of gender justice issues including: a law reform campaign to advance legal rights 
for women in Sudan and specifically to amend the Sudanese rape law; advocacy for greater accountability for gender-based crimes in eastern DRC through strengthening implementation of the Sexual Violence Act, increased domestic prosecutions for these crimes and greater cooperation by the DRC Government with the ICC investigations; challenging police practices in Kenya which diminish the reporting of rape and other forms of sexual violence and also prevent survivors from accessing the necessary medical and psycho-social assistance; highlighting the epidemic of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, a practice believed to be responsible for between 20-80% of all ‘marriages’ in this country and an issue which has been critiqued by the CEDAW Committee as part of its universal periodic review process; and lastly, a call for the ICC to investigate attacks by the LRA militia group on communities in the south eastern province of Haut-Mbomou, CAR, where their activities have included pillaging and looting of villages, abductions, rape and enslavement.
Over the next two years, WITNESS, the Women’s Initiatives and our partners will produce these videos to galvanise attention, political will and progress
for gender justice. The video advocacy plans for Sudan, DRC and CAR are connected to the specific priorities identified with our local partners in each of these country-based programmes. The video advocacy project is also intended to further support and build the global gender justice movement of thousands of activists, practitioners, academics, victims/survivors, and gender experts around the world.