While the UN procedure known as Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is meant to scrutinize governments and thereby strengthen the basic rights and freedoms of their citizens, according to a UN Watch count, 78 out of 100 countries that spoke today at the UNHRC—78 percent—praised Somalia for its human rights achievements.

This includes 36 countries that glowingly praised the abusive Somali regime for their human rights record, and another 42 that expressed some praise for the country’s alleged achievements.

“It is shameful that only a very small minority of 22 countries used their allotted one minute of speaking time to apply scrutiny to Somalia’s human rights record,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization in Geneva.

“In Somalia, 95% of girls aged 4 to 11 face genital mutilation. Women are at constant risk of getting shot or raped. Somalia is described as ‘a living hell’ for women. Yet this shameful record was whitewashed today at the UN’s top human rights body,” said Neuer.

Below is a selection of the praise expressed by 78% of the UNHRC delegates:

China: “We welcome constructive engagement and appreciate Somalia’s efforts in promoting and protecting human rights.”

Iraq: “We are pleased to see the efforts made in Somalia’s report.”

Ghana: “We commend Somalia for steps to address key human rights challenges.”

Namibia: “We commend Somalia for efforts to end conflict and to ensure protection of women.”

Palestine: “We read the national report and would like to commend Somalia for their efforts to improve the human rights situation by acceding to international human rights conventions.”

Saudi Arabia: “We appreciate Somalia’s efforts at the institutional level which reflect the extent of the positive developments despite the challenges.”

Turkey: “We praise the progress Somalia made in combating use of child soldiers, which is also recognized by UNICEF.”

Yemen: “We support their efforts and encourage Somalia to continue advancing the fight against poverty, human trafficking, and ensuring capacity-building.”

Venezuela: “International community needs to provide [to Somalia] all resources necessary to protect human rights.”

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HRC 45^th Session

Interactive Dialogue with IE on Somalia

Delivered by David Naftulin

2 October 2020

Thank you, Madam President.

United Nations Watch thanks the Independent Expert for her thorough report. We wish to address two areas of particular concern.

First, we remain concerned about the use of the death penalty in Somalia, which is frequently in the form of public execution by firing squad. In territories still under the control of Al-Shabaab, summary executions violate basic tenets of international law, including Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Second, we are alarmed by the failure to protect journalists, who are regularly intimidated, imprisoned and even assassinated for their work. Just a few months ago, 25-year old journalist Abdiwali Ali Hassan was killed by militants outside his home. Unfortunately, his story is not unique. According the Global Impunity Index published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Somalia ranks as Number 1. The Committee found that Somali journalists are murdered more often, and with more impunity, than any other country on earth.

Madam President, the people of Somalia deserve and need basic human rights.

Can the expert tell us what steps she expects Somalia to take to comply with its obligations, and to hold perpetrators accountable?

The post UN Watch Speaks out for Human Rights in Somalia appeared first on UN Watch.

• Killing of civilians by security forces
• Disappearances
• Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
• Arbitrary or politically motivated arrest and detentions
• Child soldiers
• Restrictions on free speech, free press and freedom of association
• Abuse of internally displaced persons
• Disruption and seizure of humanitarian assistance
• Lack of free and fair elections
• Trafficking in persons
• Widespread violence against women and girls, including rape and FGM
• Criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct
• Forced labor

Discussion
Somalia is a fractured territory, comprised of regions controlled by at least four different groups—the internationally supported national government, the al-Shabaab terrorist group, the semi-autonomous government in the Puntland region and the separatist government in the Somaliland region.[1]
Even in the area controlled by the national government, there have never been direct elections. The recent parliamentary elections, concluded in February 2017, saw delegates voted in by clan elders. The elections were characterized by numerous irregularities, including vote-buying, intimidation, threats, violence and kidnapping.[2] This was followed by an indirect presidential election, in which the newly-elected Parliament selected Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo as president.[3]
The clan-based electoral process prevents ordinary citizens from participating in the political process.[4] In addition, with the so-called “4.5” formula, it gives disproportionate representation in parliament to the four largest clans, and marginalizes all other clans, giving them only a collective 0.5 share of seats.[5] Furthermore, the government lacks the ability to implement its laws even in areas under its nominal control.[6]
Arbitrary arrests and killings are routinely committed by all actors in Somalia, including government security forces.[7] Al-Shabaab continues to abduct people, and pirates continue to hold hostages.[8] Government-affiliated forces are accused of torture, rape, and excessive force against journalists, demonstrators and detainees, sometimes resulting in death or injury.[9]
A UN report published at the end of 2017 documented over 2,000 civilian deaths between January 1, 2016 and October 14, 2017. Though 60% of the deaths were attributed to al-Shabaab, 11% were attributed to State actors. The report also noted that Somalia’s intelligence and security agency routinely disregards human rights law while carrying out arrests and detentions.[10]
Several groups operating in Somalia, primarily al-Shabaab but also government forces, use child soldiers. Al-Shabaab abducts children to increase its numbers before certain operations and subjects its child recruits to various forms of abuse, including harsh training, executing other children, serving as human shields and suicide bombers, and planting bombs.[11] In May 2018, the UN Independent Expert commented that the use of children in armed conflict is “a grave violation of the children’s rights,” and called for the immediate release of all child soldiers.[12]
Women in Somalia are vulnerable to many forms of violence. They are subjected to rape and other sexual violence, including by government forces. Internally displaced persons and members of minority clans are the most vulnerable. Gang rape is a particular problem in urban areas.[13] Cases of rape in drought-affected areas have been on the rise with 300 cases of rape per month in the first half of 2017 (and over 900 cases in the month of June 2017 alone).[14] In addition, Somalia has the highest rate of Female Genital Mutilation in the world: 98 percent. At least three girls have died this year from hemorrhaging as a result of the procedure. [15]
Somalia’s civilian judiciary is nonfunctional, strongly influenced by corruption and clan-based politics, and not widely respected.[16] As a result, military courts try many cases not legally within their jurisdiction, and in proceedings not compliant with international standards for due process.[17]
Freedom of the press in Somalia is severely limited, though less so in government controlled areas. According to the website Reporters Without Borders, Somalia is among the worst countries for press freedom, with a ranking of 168 out of 180.[18] In Somaliland journalists were fined and arbitrarily arrested for defamation and other crimes. Between January and May 2017, five journalists were detained in south-central Somalia, 17 were detained in Somaliland, and 11 journalists were injured (nine by al-Shabaab and two in Puntland).[19] On April 2, 2017, television journalist Hanad Ali Guled was abducted and tortured.[20] On July 26, 2018, Somali cameraman Abdirizak Kasim Iman was shot dead in Mogadishu.[21]
Somalia’s UN Voting Record
Negative: At the General Assembly, Somalia backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. Somalia also failed to support human rights victims, as it abstained or did not vote on resolutions on North Korea, Syria, Iran, Myanmar, Ukraine and Georgia.

New members to be elected on Oct. 12 to UN Human Rights Council include:
• Eritrea
• Bahrain
• Somalia
• Cameroon
• Philippines
• Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/lLpOi7TcSv

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 5, 2018

[1] Freedom in the World 2018: Somalia, Freedom House (2018), https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/somalia.
[2] U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Somalia 26 (2017) [hereinafter State Department Report on Somalia].
[3] Id.
[4] Freedom in the World 2018: Somalia, supra note 104.
[5] Id.; State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 28.
[6] Freedom in the World 2018: Somalia, supra note 104.
[7] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 2-6.
[8] Id. at 3.
[9] Id. at 4.
[10] Somalia conflict exacting terrible toll on civilians – UN report Al Shabaab responsible for most civilian casualties, Office of the High Commissioner (Dec. 11, 2017), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22520&LangID=E.
[11] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 15-16.
[12] Somalia: UN expert urges action to stop children being kidnapped and used as fighters, Office of the High Commissioner (May 4, 2018), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23039&LangID=E.
[13] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 32.
[14] Alecia Richards, In Somali drought, women fighting sexual predators as well as hunger, CNN (July 14, 2017), https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/14/africa/somalia-drought-violence-against-women/index.html.
[15] Kate Hodal, Somalia under renewed Scrutiny over FGM after two more young girls die, The Guardian (Sep. 17, 2018), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/sep/17/somalia-under-renewed-scrutiny-over-female-genital-mutilation-after-two-more-young-girls-die.
[16] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 8; Freedom in the World 2018: Somalia, supra note 104.
[17] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 9-10; Freedom in the World 2018: Somalia, supra note 104.
[18] Reporters Without Borders Rankings, https://rsf.org/en/ranking (last visited Sept. 17, 2018).
[19] State Department Report on Somalia, supra note 105, at 19.
[20] Id.
[21] Somali cameraperson shot dead in Mogadishu, Committee to Protect Journalists (July 31, 2018), https://cpj.org/2018/07/somali-cameraperson-shot-dead-in-mogadishu.php.

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Geneva, Sept. 26, 2006 — Today the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva debated reports delivered by its human rights envoys for Somalia, Cuba and the Palestinian territories. UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the world body’s human rights activities, welcomed the reports and issued the following statement.

• Report on Cuba:  UN Watch applauds Ms. Christine Chanet, the Council expert on Cuba, for her persistent work under difficult circumstances, given the Cuban government’s refusal to allow her to visit the country or to otherwise cooperate.  We fully endorse her call on the Cuban government to stop prosecuting citizens, and to free those already imprisoned, for exercising their basic civil and political rights—such as the 60 pro-democracy activists still sitting in jail from the government’s March 2003 crackdown. UN Watch also endorses Ms. Chanet’s calls for the Castro regime to end restrictions against non-governmental organizations, to allow for dissenting views in trade unions, press, and political parties, and to lift the travel ban that prevents Cubans from leaving the island without permission.UN Watch condemned the Cuban ambassador for resorting to personal insults against Chanet. “We will send your report to the same place as your previous reports, i.e., to the circular file,” he said.  “Among your many occupations, Ms. Chanet, this is not one of your honorable jobs.  No one will remember your illegitimate mandate.  There is a significant contribution that you might make—by quitting.”  Referring to the U.S., Cuba said “we struggle for survival as a nation against the most powerful and aggressive empire in history, this fascist clique trying to destroy us.”

  “That Fidel Castro’s Cuba, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, is a member of the Human Rights Council is an outrage,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.  “Cuba uses its Council seat not to promote human rights, but to shield itself and fellow dictatorships from criticism.  For months, council delegates have been subjected to Castro-style political theater, with Havana’s ambassador lambasting its political enemies, such as the U.S. and the E.U., and standing in the way of needed reforms.  Cuba’s refusal to cooperate with Ms. Chanet is just another example of its obstructionist policy vis-à-vis the Council.”

• Report on Somalia: The sobering report by Ghanim Alnajjar, the Council’s expert on Somalia, documented widespread, severe human rights violations and a dire humanitarian situation in this unstable country, which has long suffered from both civil strife and natural disasters.  The establishment of a transitional government in 2004 initially seemed encouraging, but that government is now fighting an Islamist group that controls much of the southern part of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu.  Recent reports indicate that neighboring states are becoming involved.  UN Watch agrees with Mr. Alnajjar that yet another war will have a devastating effect on Somali civilians, and calls on the international community, and in particular regional organizations like the African Union and Arab League, to redouble their efforts to help bring about a stable government and lasting peace for Somalia.  The recent murder of an Italian nun, who worked in a Mogadishu pediatrics hospital, underscores the alarming situation of violence and anarchy.

• Report on Palestinian Territories:  UN Watch welcomed a new effort by John Dugard, the Council’s expert on the Palestinian territories, to expand his purview beyond Israeli violations only—which is his current mandate as crafted by the Council’s Arab and Moslem states.  For the first time, his report this year begins to redress this imbalance by protesting executions by the Palestinian Authority.  “The Special Rapporteur’s mandate,” Dugard acknowledged, “does not extend to human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority. It would, however, be irresponsible for a human rights special rapporteur to allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners to go unnoticed. . . The Special Rapporteur expresses the hope that these executions were aberrations and that the Palestinian Authority will in future refrain from this form of punishment.” UN Watch encourages Mr. Dugard to further expand his purview to include Palestinian violations against Israeli victims as well.

UN Watch agreed with the rapporteur that Israel’s disengagement from Gaza constituted “an important step in the direction of the resolution of the conflict in the region,” and called on both Israel and the Palestinians to fully implement all their obligations under the Road Map for Middle East Peace. Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director, expressed concern that Mr. Dugard’s report inappropriately gave voice to his personal, political views by criticizing the UN for participating in the Quartet, sponsor of the Road Map, for adopting “a strategy of political appeasement.”  Today, at a seminar held at the Council, Dugard said that “Holocaust guilt consumes Europe.”  According to Neuer, “some of John Dugard’s statements on Israel sound eerily close to those of Iran’s President Ahmadinenjad and are cause for concern.”

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