Dr. Salome Mbugua:

I want to emphasise that there is a problem and a challenge of engaging with organisations and groups which are working directly with the victims meaning that people who are experiencing injustice are not able to access justice. These groups are very poorly resourced. If a group just goes and gives training and they are not from a specific background that is experiencing issues, it will not make any significant impact. It is very important that groups and organisations are resourced to be able to raise awareness among the people they reach on the ground and also to be able to support them and to support the service providers in front-line services.

I cannot overemphasise the importance of training that covers a broad range of areas. My organisation, AkiDwA, has been able to develop training to go into the training package on female genital mutilation, for example. It is good that it will be already included in the manual that they have. However, there are so many other areas. We are talking about cultural competency and so many other things we cannot have as part of that training. It is very important that the jury, the court and everybody understand about cultural competence and the issues that we are talking about. It is also important to support young people, in particular young migrants. It really will save us considerably if we invest in them, in particular. Our recommendation on the task force for youth would be very important to be able to explore the issues and how those issues can be handled.

I thank the committee for inviting us and talking with us. This is a good beginning in discussing these issues and how we can move forward.