Kenya has shown little to no support for countries where some of the worst human rights violations have been carried out in the recent past, a new report has revealed.

The report by Human Rights Watch on the voting patterns of the UN Human Rights Council, shows Kenya kept off when other countries voted to address the crisis in Syria, where thousands have been killed and millions have been left hungry, ailing or displaced.

Also, Kenya did not join the call for the Security Council to refer the Syrian case to the ICC and it was the only African member state that did not intervene in any of the debates on country situations in the council in 2013.

“In addition, Kenya abstained (or did not vote) on all other resolutions addressing North Korea, Iran, Belarus and Ukraine,” says the report.

Double standards

Notably, in one of the few exceptions where Kenya has voted, it has been in favour of the resolutions focusing on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.

This voting pattern, the report says, “raises serious questions about double standards and selectivity in [Kenya’s] approach to the council.”

For example, in 2014, Kenya voted against the council’s intervention over human rights violations in Sri Lanka, but voted in support of Palestinian self-determination, Israeli settlements and in support of a fact-finding mission in the Gaza conflict.

Kenya also failed to co-sponsor any resolutions other than the ones supported by the African Group.

Mr John Fisher, the Geneva director at Human Rights Watch, said some countries tend to “hide behind their regional groups” or the political dynamics at the Human Rights Council, but each has a role in the council’s successes and failures.