Kaari Betty Murungi
Kaari Betty Murungi is a lawyer who has practiced law at national, regional and international levels, and has experience in the management of non-governmental and non-profit organisations. She served on the board of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, among others. She has background in international human rights in the context of violent conflict with experience in international criminal justice and accountability mechanisms. She has worked in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Northern Uganda and South Sudan and served for a short period as Vice Chairperson and Commissioner to the Kenya Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and as the Africa representative on the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court (2010-2013). She also served as a member of theUnited Nations Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Ms. Murungi was profiled for ATLAS by Angela Mudukuti. Learn more about Angela's work at the end of this profile and follow her @AngelaMudukuti.
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What first pulled you towards international criminal law as a career?
Believe it or not but I started out as a commercial lawyer acting for banks and insurance companies. As a young lawyer fresh out of law school, I joined the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), a women lawyers' organisation incorporated in Kenya around the time of the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi. FIDA offered our legal services to indigent women. I was also involved in pro-democracy struggles in Kenya in the late 80’s and 90s, so you see, I was searching for ways that my learning of the law could be applied towards social justice ends. But it was the 1994 Tutsi genocide that moved me to action and steered me towards international criminal law.
I remember watching the tragic events taking place in Rwanda on television, and thought to myself that there had to be something the world could do to intervene to stop the slaughter. I felt helpless. I also felt that the world was not paying enough attention as most of the media coverage was dedicated to other events like Mandela’s inauguration and the OJ Simpson trial. The African Union and African leaders seemed unconcerned about what was going on in Rwanda. After reading numerous reports and much soul searching, I travelled to Rwanda in 1995 to meet other activists who were beginning to get involved, particularly in the prospects for accountability and justice for the horrible crimes that had been perpetrated.
Around the same time as the ICTY and ICTR were established, Ariane Brunet, then heading the women’s rights program at Rights & Democracy (Canada), convened a group of feminist legal scholars and human rights activists to form a coalition that was concerned primarily in holding the ad hoc tribunals accountable in their investigation and prosecution of sexual violence and other gender-related crimes. This coalition was critical in anchoring my interest in international criminal justice broadly, and IHRL in particular. This was an important learning space for me because it brought together women human rights defenders who were dealing with crimes committed in their own countries and renowned legal scholars. You will recall that at the time there was also conflict raging in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and the DRC. The Women’s Rights Defenders Coalition included activists from these countries.
Feminist legal scholars who were part of the Coalition included Professor Rhonda Copelon, a world renowned legal scholar in the field of international human rights law. Rhonda became an important mentor for me and we served together at the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice which she co- founded in 1997 to ensure gender perspectives were incorporated during the negotiations for the International Criminal Court Statute. Ariane Brunet co-founded with Julie Shaw the Urgent Action Fund UAF-Africa – a women’s fund which made grants to women human rights defenders responding to conflicts in their communities.
I also had the pleasure of working with the likes of Binaifer Nowrojee who was with Human Rights Watch at the time. She is fantastic. With her rigorous research and writings, Binaifer brought to the world’s attention to the extent and egregiousness of the crimes of sexual violence committed against women in Rwanda during the genocide of the Tutsis. Alison Des Forges of HRW and Rakiya Omar of Africa Rights were two other Rwanda scholars that greatly inspired me. So that was my “deep-dive” into the world of international human rights law.
For 10 years we worked with the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICTR to ensure that crimes against women were being investigated and prosecuted. By “working with them” I mean that we were monitoring the investigations and prosecutions from the outside, including filing amicus briefs, working with survivors in Rwanda, and with Rwandan lawyers like Professor Alice Karekezi.
One of the most important amicus briefs we filed was in the 1998 Akayesu case. As you know this case expanded the definition of rape and we like to think that we played a role in that. Of course, it was a collective effort and it was very helpful to have a feminist Judge Navi Pillay on the Akayesu bench. I remember being in that courtroom when the arguments were being made and it is an outcome we are all really proud of it.
In addition to your work on the Akayesu case and influencing the definition of crimes in the Rome Statute, what else would you say are the highlights of your life’s work to date?
Firstly, I have a problem with calling them “highlights” because the work that needed to be done came from circumstances that had destroyed other people’s lives. But to answer your question - I would add the work I did as part of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice. Participating as legal advisor in The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery organised by Indai Sajor and Yayori Matsui of The Violence Against Women in War Network (VAWNET) in 2000 in Tokyo, Japan ranks high up on significant work. This People’s Tribunal put the Japanese Emperor, Emperor Hirohito, and high ranking military officials on trial (in absentia ) for crimes that were committed against the so-called “ Comfort Women” during the Second World War.
The other work that stands out for me was being involved with the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a gender consultant. But again I would not characterise this as a “highlight” but work that enabled me to push boundaries in terms of accountability of non-judicial mechanisms in seeking justice for victims of egregious crimes committed during conflict.
My time as a Senior Transitional Justice Advisor to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) in South Sudan is recent but also significant in my professional life. JMEC monitors the implementation of the Peace Agreement in South Sudan and being involved highlighted for me the myriad challenges of peace agreement implementation.
What are some of the other challenges that you have faced and how have you tackled them?
Being a young mother working on all these issues obviously presented its challenges. However, I was lucky to have a good support system at home. But again that is not really a challenge when you think about the helplessness you feel when you are working with women who have suffered terrible, unspeakable losses. Therefore, the challenge for me was to make a human connection with victims and defenders. It was important for me to make sure that after I have done my research or consultancy, I did not just “helicopter” in and out. Providing ongoing support and remaining connected to the communities with which I worked was important. That is why Urgent Action Fund-Africa was so critical because it supported survivors and human rights defenders.
What advice do you have for those women who are embarking on a journey in public international law?
There are two ways you can do it - as an academic or as a practitioner. You can also mix the two. I would remind them that it is exciting work because it is developing. It has its share of heartbreaks as you get to know and interact with survivors. It brings with it a level of satisfaction you will not get in the other fields of law but you have to have an overriding interest in it. It is not easy and there is so much to be done.
I would advise them to look into new research topics, for example the work coming out of the International Law Commission is very interesting for young women who want to get into the field. When I was starting out I was so focused on accountability for sexual and gender-based crimes committed during conflict but now I would tell women that it is important to consider not just looking at it from feminist scholarly perspective but thinking more about how we can develop justice systems that are accessible to Africa’s women.
Looking at the justice gap in Africa we see that international justice is often far removed from the people. Even national justice systems are far removed - there is work to be done here. I would urge young people getting into this field to think about narrowing the justice gap in a way that is realistic. This is what I am currently applying my mind to, so perhaps there is a bit of bias there but it would be great to work on it with other people!
Our focus on international criminal justice and the development of international jurisprudence should translate into the development of national systems and accountability.
If there was something you wish someone had told before you embarked on this journey, what would it be?
I wish that someone had told me that this is a lifetime commitment.
International criminal justice is still male dominated and populated by voices from the global north - how can we transform these spaces to be more inclusive?
This was the story of my life. I have often found myself in male-dominated spaces where I was the only woman and the only woman of colour. I was lucky to be surrounded by feminist thinkers in the Coalition who had already engaged a model of analysis that included dealing with male-dominated spaces.
As we do the work of international criminal justice we need to remember it is not work that is being done in a vacuum. International criminal justice is very political. With all the discrimination we face as women, as people from the global south and so on, we need to be aware of this and design strategies for inclusion. There is also class discrimination in these spaces. This also intervenes to exclude you from certain spaces! Be aware but try and get the best education you can. Go out there and look for scholarships, go to the spaces that will open doors and get you into the right kind of analytical frame. Also remember to bring others up with you - mentorship is crucial. This why I like the ATLAS - people are always giving each other information about scholarships or job opportunities- it is so important. I would have really appreciated this as a young 27-year-old trying to get into this field.
Ms. Murungi was profiled for ATLAS by Angela Mudukuti. Angela is a Zimbabwean lawyer currently with the Wayamo Foundation, where she focuses on capacity building for African prosecutors and investigators to further enhance domestic capacity to investigate and prosecute core international crimes. Formerly with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), Angela worked on precedent-setting cases on crimes against humanity and universal jurisdiction brought before the South African Constitutional Court, and was deeply involved in advocacy and strategic litigation, including seeking the arrest of President Bashir (Sudan) during his visit to South Africa. Prior to joining SALC, Angela worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, and under the supervision of Prof Cherif Bassiouni at the International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Siracusa, Italy. Prior to that, Angela was in private practice in Zimbabwe working on civil and criminal matters. Angela has an LLM in international criminal law and transitional justice and an undergraduate law degree. Angela has written and published on international criminal law issues in books and newspapers. @AngelaMudukuti