Criminalising a ‘way of life’: The human rights implications of the UK Government’s ban of khat (or miraa) on the farmers of Meru County, Kenya

Authors

  • Maker Mayek Riak University of New South Wales

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14296/jhrc.v2i1.2099

Abstract

This paper explores the human rights implications of the categorisation of khat (miraa) as a ClassC Drug under the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 on farmers in the Meru County of Kenya. The paper willargue that the criminalisation of khat is a contravention of the obligations under the International Covenanton Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and other human rights instruments that provide forthe right of people to enjoy adequate standards of living. As the UK is signatory to the ICESCR and hasratified it into its domestic law, its obligations as a State Party to the Convention extend not only to the UKresidents, but also to the broader international community.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

  4. The Creative Commons copyright notice that applies is displayed below.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.