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During a session at the Youth Rights Academy in Switzerland, Kenyan activist and Elimu Care Founder Faridah Ally posed a direct and urgent question to a panel that included UN representatives.
Her voice conveyed the frustration felt by many young Kenyans amidst ongoing political tensions and police brutality.
“We're being abducted, we're being killed, we're being followed from our homesteads and taken to police stations and killed in police stations,” Ally stated, describing the situation in Kenya.
She highlighted that despite media coverage, including documentaries by the BBC, and direct appeals to the UN, tangible international action has been lacking.
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Kenyan activist and Elimu Care Founder Faridah Ally Youth Rights Academy in Geneva, Switzerland
She also noted that young people had written directly to the United Nations and even attempted to disrupt live UN sessions in a bid to draw global attention.
She stated that statements from the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions expressing solidarity with the Kenyan youth were not effective.
“So my question is, are there like specific thresholds or maybe legal mechanisms that must be met or even triggered for the United Nations to even act on such issues?” she asked.
What don't we know that we need to do to trigger the UN to act?
Her question expressed a common sentiment of distrust in established systems, which she suggested seem to prioritise governmental negotiations over citizen protection.
Watch Faridah's remarks in the video below
The First Step
In a subsequent thread on the social media platform X, Ally provided the answers she found, clarifying a crucial point for many who feel their calls are unheard.
Faridah, who is also a member of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights- Education Above All (OHCHR-EAA) Youth Advisory Board, said that the United Nations cannot act on its own based on news reports or viral videos alone.
The process, she explained, is not automatic. It must be initiated through a formal complaint backed by solid evidence. Without this, international human rights bodies have no official basis to act.
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Kenyan activist and Elimu Care Founder Faridah Ally Youth Rights Academy in Geneva, Switzerland
Ally emphasised the importance of meticulous documentation, advising citizens to gather specific details for each incident:
Names of victims, locations, and dates of events
Photographic and video evidence
A clear and factual description of what happened
Eyewitness accounts
"If we don’t do this, the system has nothing to act on," she wrote.
From Evidence to International Pressure
Once this evidence is compiled, it needs to be sent to the right channels. Ally pointed to a specific platform for submitting this information: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) portal at https://spsubmission.ohchr.org.
Submissions through this portal reach UN Special Rapporteurs who are independent experts tasked with monitoring and reporting on human rights situations. According to Ally, these experts can take several key actions:
Raise formal concerns directly with the Kenyan government.
Demand an official response to the allegations.
Report their findings to the international community.
Increase diplomatic pressure on the country in question.
While this process is not instantaneous, she noted, "it adds real weight" to the calls for accountability.
Navigating Legal and Diplomatic Hurdles
What happens if the government ignores these actions?
Ally outlined the subsequent steps. The next recourse is legal, starting with local courts. If the domestic judicial system fails to provide justice, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and coalitions can escalate the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, she offered a dose of reality about the ICC. It is a court of last resort that only handles the most severe international crimes.
Furthermore, prosecuting top officials can be exceptionally difficult, often due to national immunity laws that protect them from prosecution.
The Power of a Documented Voice
Ultimately, Ally noted that achieving international intervention is a strategic process. She explained that while the path is complex and often difficult, it is not out of reach.
According to her, it doesn't start with outrage alone, but with organised, detailed, and verifiable evidence.
“This is why documentation + public pressure matters,” she concluded. “We can’t afford to be silent. We protest, we post, we publish and we document because one day, there will be a reckoning. And we’ll need evidence.”
Her remarks were shared by many Kenyan youth who feel that formal diplomatic responses have not translated into meaningful intervention.
By highlighting previous efforts, including media coverage, direct appeals to the UN, and diplomatic statements, Ally questioned whether there are defined thresholds the international system requires before acting.