Damaris Bonareri Onyancha

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan Univeristy

Fall 2026

Damaris Bonareri is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and Certified Professional Mediator. She has led various initiatives on human rights and access to justice in Kenya, Africa and beyond inclusive of complex challenges facing migrants and displaced communities. She is a researcher and practitioner with expertise and experience on human rights, policy advocacy, digital rights, forced migration and durable solutions, labour migration and labour rights, environmental justice and governance among others. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Policy and Research at the University of Nairobi and is the Program Coordinator for Displacement and Migration (East and Horn of Africa) at the Heinrich Boll Stiftung. Damaris sits in committees and coalitions tackling migration and human rights issues at the national, regional and international levels. She has previously worked at the Refugee Consortium of Kenya, HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya and the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

Research focus while a Fellow with CERC

The labour export volumes from East Africa are growing and the gap between formal commitments and actual protections for workers is widening without deliberate intervention. Existing attention is more focused on BLA formation rather than implementation, accountability and worker protection with governments positioning the agreements as principal instruments for protection of migrant workers. Countries in the global north on the other hand view BLAs as political declarations of intent to regulate and control Bilateral Labour Migration. A question then arises on whether the BLAs protect the national interests of these sending countries and whether they have effective implementation mechanisms that can resolve the challenges which would naturally exist at the interface of two national policy frameworks.