A well-attended ceremony marking the International Human Rights Day on Thursday was held on the 10th of December with activities led by the Somaliland National Human rights commission (SLNHRC).The Day marks the anniversary of the Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Hon Farhiya Haji Hussein Jahur, chairman of the Somaliland National Human rights commission (SLNHRC)
Hon Farhiya Haji Hussein Jahur, the chairman of the Somaliland National Human rights commission (SLNHRC) in her speech during the function marking International Human Rights Day stated as follows:-
I am proud that today, we celebrate the world human rights day. On 10th of December 1948 is earmarked to become the Human Rights after the Second World War 1939-1945 massacre occurred in the world.
This day reflects on the human dignity and rights of all humans regardless of race, color, minority, religion and everything that affects the rights of a human being.
The theme for Human Rights Day 2015 is “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always” – to mark the launch of a one-year campaign commemorating two international treaties adopted 50 years ago: Two Human Rights Covenants are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both adopted in 1966.
In 2015, the focus is on “freedoms” – recalling the four freedoms that underpin the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two major human rights covenants, and first articulated in 1941 by President Franklin D Roosevelt in his “four freedoms speech” to the US Congress. The four freedoms are: freedom from fear, freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom from want.
The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols.
According to the National Human Rights Commission Act, the commission will conduct its duties freelyand without interference in accordance with the Act and the regulations of the International Human Rights.
The Commission deals with activities related to the entry of human rights violators and the fundamental freedoms of the citizens and residents of the country, while not violate laws.
Commission act of international rules related to human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention on international political and social rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the rights of international social, cultural and economic (ICSECR) , call for international intervention to help end violence against woman (CEDAW) and the African Charter of Human Rights(African Charter). Commission break exercised in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the country.
Activities undertaken by Commission in 2015
The Somaliland Human Rights commission is constantly monitoring the 11 prison and 1 main Prison 6 regional prisons and four district level detention centers.
The Commission has in the course of this year (2015) inspected 45 police stations in all 6 regions of the country.
The commission has been monitoring the conditions in the following institutions:-
- Education Centers
- Internal displaced and Refuges
- Health centers such as hospitals and mental Asylums
- Orphaned centers and Juvenile rehabilitation centers
- We strongly urge the members of the National Assembly to pass the rape law.
- 125 complaints were submitted to the commission in 2015 all relating to Human Rights offenses and all we dealt with legally.
- Members of the commission while representing the country have participated in regional and international NGO meetings.
- We strongly recommend the legislative body to work closely all Human rights groups and concerned parties while drafting Human rights laws in order to safeguard human rights in the country.
7.We have being hold awareness training for the concerned communities.
- The Human Rights commission will continue to lobby rape bill to be enacted into Law.
- We have held numerous forums meant to address the effects Illegal migration, difficulties faced by people who suffer from mental illness, treatment, rape and we disseminate awareness program through the media.
- The commission after conducting inspections submits their findings and recommendations to the concerned ministries in order for them to take the appropriate action.
We recommend the current government to implement the following:-
1. Ministry of Government and the House of Representatives to propose legislation to make the protection of the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the constitution, according to Article 25 section 3.
2. Legislative body to draft laws meant to control female circumcision.
3. Legislative body should speed up the adoption of the law rape.
4. We urge the ministry of justice and prisons department to improve conditions of jails and the overall wellbeing of prisoners.
5. We call upon Human rights and concerned stakeholders to cooperate in order to safeguard human rights of citizens living in the country.
6. The Commission proposes that the draft, any changes and additions to the journalist code No.27.2004 current parliament titles, as soon as possible in order to obtain approval of the democratic framework governing the press in Somaliland.
7. We suggest that the Ministry of Education and universities to establish faculties that teach journalism.
8. To create a bill of rights for children.
9. To implement the Children Act and, that they should tried in a special and unique court which guarantees and safeguards their rights.
10. To Introduce and adapt a bill for protection of mental illness patients in order to protect their rights.
11. We call on the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Religious affairs to make investigate and make sure persons suffering mental being treated in private asylums are treated humanely.
12. We urge the legislative bodies should allocated special quotas for women
13. The allocation of special quotas for minorities.
14. The Ministry of Education should provide education to visually impaired students and also equip them learning gear.
15. Community, we urge them to maintain the country’s laws in order to create a society free from tribalism and violence against human rights.
A number of articles have been written recently about the secessionist enclave known as Somaliland which seek to portray it as a stable democratic nation.Their sham elections have been touted as a milestone and many of your contributors have been urging the recognition of Somaliland based on this and other factors such as the stability and peace enjoyed by this northern enclave.The rest of Somalia,particularly the south,ravaged as it is by al shabab terrorists and an embattled Amisom backed SFG,is held up as the very antithesis of the idyllic haven in the north.This rhetorical and ideological combat launched by the supporters of Somaliland is often underwritten by that familiar imperial discourse which compares the civilized to the savage,the north to the south and the colonizer to the colonized.It is no wonder that imperial scholars such as IM Lewis and his ilk are often the most vocal in their support of Somaliland as a separate entity worthy of sovereignty and recognition.In pushing for the discourse of a seaparate Somaliland,these proponents of secession perpetrate several myths which are easily shattered under careful scrutiny.
The myth of Somaliland’s uniqueness and difference from Somalia is shattered bu the fact that all Somalis,from Djibouti to Eastern Ethiopia,to Northern Kenya speak the same language,share the same religion,tradition and customs.Regional differentiation in terms of dialects do not in any way hamper Somalis from interacting socially and economically,and intermarriage between the clans is rife.The clans inhabiting Somaliland also spill over into Djibouti,Ethiopia and other parts of Somalia.And while Somaliland portrays itself as an inpependant unitary nation,the truth is that it is composed of four major clans ie the Isaaq,Dhulbahante,Issa,Warsangeli and Gudabirsi, and that these clans do not all subscribe to the separation of Somaliland from the rest of Somalia.Indeed the complete domaination of the Isaaq clan from the Berbera-Hargeisa-Burao Triangle in Somaliland politics informs the secessionist agenda.The Dhulbahante,who occupy the Eastern third of Somaliland do not ascribe to separatism and indeed have launched an armed political movement to expel the Somaliland presence from their ancestral land under the banner of a movement named after the regions they occupy,known as SSC(Sool,Sanaag and Cayn), under the leadership of Professor Ali Khalif Galaydh, Somalia’s former Prime Minister.They have formed a new federal state known as Khaatumo State of Somalia, which is currently based in Buhodle Town in Ayn Region.
The myth of Somaliland as the only island of stability in an ocean of Somali chaos does little to convince anyone with even a glancing familiarity with Somali politics.Except for Mogadishu and its environs,most of Notheastern,Central and southern Somalia are favorably compared to Somaliland.they have formed similar administrations such as Puntland ,Jubbaland and Galmudug.Somalia has hotspots of conflict and they are found in Somalia and Somaliland.However due to neglect and suppression of news,the conflicts in Somaliland are rarely,if ever reported by both the Somali and international media.There are no media reports for example of the deadly struggle of the SSC and their struggle aginst Somaliland’s occupation of their land.There is no mention of the the creeping genocide in eastern Somalia where Isaaq militias are depopulating areas belonging to Dhulbahante and Warsangeli clans.There is no mention of the flight of the citizens of Las Anod Town in eastern Somaliland since the occupation of the town by Somaliland.A cursory check at the refugee population in Kenya’s refugee camps will show the presecnce of at least 20,000 Dhulbahante’s who have fled the torture,arbitrary arrests misery and deprecations of Somaliland’s occupation of their hometowns.
The myth of democracy and fair elections in Somaliland belies the fact that tht most of somaliland’s clans are excluded from the political process.Out of the three parties allowed to run for office ie UCID,Kulmiye and Udub, all are headed by Isaaq and deputized by Gudabiirsi, who with the Isaaq belong to the larger Dir Group The Harti who occupy half of the country are effectively locked out of power.Three of the major clans in Somaliland ie the Issa,Dhulbahante and Warsanageli have no significant presence in any of these parties.It is a formula designed to ensure either an Isaaq or their lackey wins any Somaliland election.There is no room constitutionally for any other parties thus effectively consigning large segments of the territories population to political and economic oblivion.The same formula pervades all institutions of Somaliland,from the civil service,civil society,media and military.This façade of a democracy and free elections is maintained and enhanced by the same Isaaq diaspora that made the bulk of the so-called international observers in the last elections .No mention was made of the fact that large areas of Eastern Somaliland violently prevented the sham pretense of an election in their regions.
Somalia’s Khatumo state consists of Sool, Sanaag and Ayn (SSC) located between the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the breakaway state of Somaliland. Its aim is to create an independent administration in the northern region of Somalia. Unlike Somaliland, it does not seek complete autonomy and is willing to unite with the rest of Somalia under a federal government structure and still flies the Somali flag.It is led by Somalia’s former Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh.It is Dervish a successor state to the first Somali state,the Dervish state that was headquarted in Taleh and led by Seyyid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan,the anticolonial hero who led a bitter war against the British, where hundreds of thousands of Somalis,particularly the Dhulbahante lost their lives fighting for independence.
Since the collapse of the Somali State in the nineties,Khaatumo has been invaded by the one clan secessionist enclave now known as Somaliland.The Somaliland administration led by the Isaaq have since commited mass killings,rape and forced evictions of the Dhulbahante of Khaatumo.The well known scholar of Somali studies Professor Markus Hoehne has documented these atrocities in his book “State and Identity Formation in Northern Somalia.”Somaliland to this day continues to kill,loot and rape innocent civilians in the occupied regions of Sool,Sanaag and Ayn.There are no international NGO’s or independent media that operate in these regions.Hundreds of Dhulbahante civilians remained incarcerated in Somaliland jails. Underage girls have been raped and killed by Somaliland militia wit the blessings of prominent Isaaq clerics like the famous Sheikh Adan Siiro of Hargeisa, who issued a fatwa that Dhulbahante girls were lawful booty for the Isaaq soldiers.This region is now like Darfur and the Isaaq have becme the Janjaweed, and the rest of the world is oblivious to this fact.Unlike Darfur,there is no one to highlight the plightof the Dhulbahante people.The Khaatumo administration has knocked on all doors from the Somali Federal Government,Igad,AU,Arab league, to the UN to petition against the Somaliland administration to no avail, and have now been forced to launch armed resistance against the Somaliland enclave in order to stop the atrocities commited by the Somaliland administration,the gross human rights violations,the lack of freedom of speech and assembly,tthhe lack of basic social services,the lack of independent media,the economic blockade, the impoverishment and disempowering of the Dhulbahante people,the blatant creeping genocide against the Dhulbahante people, displacement from ancestral homes,the denial of humanitarian and aid agencies from operating in the area,and the unlawful occupation of the land of the land of the Dhulbahante.
Osman Hassan
Khaatumo Forum for Peace,Unity and Development
info@khaatumoforum.org