COVAW is a non-profit making national women human rights organization registered in Kenya under the NGO Coordination Act. COVAW was established in 1995 as a result of a workshop organized by WILDAF (Women in Law and development in Africa) that sought to strengthen the networking capacities of women organizations in Kenya. At this workshop, violence against women was identified as a serious women rights violation that needed concerted efforts to address.
This saw the birth of COVAW. Since inception, COVAW has continued to be instrumental in placing violence against women as a crime and a human rights violation and has spearheaded the campaign towards women having the right to be free from violence, the right to self defence and the right to state protection. COVAW believes that people have the capacity to learn and change their attitudes towards women. COVAW beneficiaries are therefore women and girls
