Exploring effective transitional justice responses – Dr Florence Simbiri Jaoko

Ms. Simbiri-Jaoko is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and the Kenya School of Law.

She has served as a Magistrate and a Principal Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Kenya and has extensive experience in judicial and human rights training. She served as a Research Assistant to the Task Force on the laws relating to auctioneers as well as the Secretary to the Committee on Community Service Orders; both initiatives culminated into statutory enactments. She served as the Secretary to the Legal Sector Reform Coordinating Committee and has been a consultant to the World Bank and DFID on legal and judicial reforms.

Ms. Simbiri-Jaoko is a member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya Chapter), International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA, Kenya Chapter), and International Association of Refugee Judges.

Some verbatims from the interviews:

– On justice mechanisms
« It’s important to link the African national mechanisms with international mechanisms because if Africa is not willing to hold its leaders accountable, then clearly we will still need an international justice system. »

– On the issues against the International Criminal Court (ICC)
« The issue against ICC from African leaders is about themselves, it’s not about their citizens. The ordinary citizen in Africa, who is suffering, really doesn’t care where the solution comes from. African people just want the solution to be there, wether it is brought by somebody from the West or from Africa. I believe they would be happy if the solutions were from the national jurisdiction because they voted their governments. »

– On Beyond ICC
“Our ‘Beyond ICC’ should be building our own national institutions. Building our regional institutions but also being able, in the future, as Africans, to say for example,’look as Africans, we’re passing a resolution on Syria’… ”

FlorenceSimbiriJaoko