Maina Kiai

Maina Kiai served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association until 2017. As Special Rapporteur, Kiai issued seven major reports and led nine official country visits, to Georgia, the United Kingdom, Rwanda, Oman, Kazakhstan, Chile, the Republic of Korea, and the United States. His extensive, dynamic work as Special Rapporteur earned him the UN Foundation’s Leo Nevas Award, given to “those who have served as agents of change in advancing international human rights.” Kiai has been a leading voice on justice in Africa and Kenya in particular, as founding Director of the NGO Kenya Human Rights Commission, Africa Director at Amnesty International, Africa Director at the International Human Rights Law Group, and Founding Chairperson of the official Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Kiai is the head and founder of Human Rights Watch’s Alliances and Partnerships Initiative, as well as the 2019 Scholar-in-Residence at the Ted Sorenson Center at CUNY Law School.