ENDOROIS WELFARE COUNCIL V. STATE OF KENYA Basics Tribunal: African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Who and What: The Government of Kenya stood accused of violating the following rights of the Endorois, an indigenous group in Kenya: • property • natural resources • development • culture • health • freedom of religion Backstory The Endorois are a community of approximately 60,000 nomadic pastoralists who, for centuries, lived in the Lake Bogoria region of Kenya’s Central Rift Valley. Throughout time, the Endorois led a sustainable lifestyle inextricably linked to their land. In addition to securing subsistence and livelihood from their land, they saw it as sacred. The Endorois served as trustees of this land for future generations. Their relationship with the land was, and is, essential to their traditional way of life and, ultimately, their survival as indigenous people. In 1973, the Endorois were forcibly evicted from their land by the Kenyan government to make room for a development project, the Lake Bogoria Game Reserve. The Endorois community was removed from their land and denied access to their homes, their traditional grazing lands, their spiritual sites, and sites where they collected traditional medicine. The Endorois alleged that exclusion from their land resulted in violations of the rights set forth in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, including the right to property, natural resources, development, culture, health, and freedom of religion. The Endorois initially brought their case to the High Court of Kenya. After the Kenyan court threw the case out in 2002, the Endorois were then able to bring their claim to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). In 2003, they asked the ACHPR for the return of their land and financial compensation from the Kenyan government for their losses. The legal term for this is “restitution.” 10 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: VIDEO BEYOND THE COURTROOM V 1.0 LAW FIELD NOTE THE ROLE OF VIDEO IN HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY