Human Rights and Democracy Report 2017 - Somalia

The human rights situation in Somalia remained challenging in 2017, with continuing violations of the right to life including extrajudicial killing; gender-based violence; the exclusion of women and members of minorities from political, economic and social processes; and restrictions on journalists and media freedom. Overall, human rights protections and domestic mechanisms in the country remained extremely weak. The UN OHCHR documented violations and abuses, including arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and extrajudicial killing by a range of state and non-state actors. In 2017, severe drought caused the displacement of over 900,000 people, restricting many people's access to adequate food, housing and security, and exacerbating gender-based violence.

The UK played a major part in international efforts to strengthen security, stability and the rule of law, which are required to underpin stronger human rights protections. There remained a lack of accountability among the Somali National Army, national intelligence agencies and forces of the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), perpetuating a culture of impunity. Much of our engagement with the AMISOM mission, so vital to Somalia's security and wider stability, concentrated on human rights protection, while our wider work in Somalia was considered carefully to avoid contributing to any human rights violations. In May, the London Somalia Conference set out a range of commitments by the Federal Government of Somalia and the international community in support of stability and security in the country. This included respect for and the protection of human rights. The UK continued to train Somali security forces in international human rights standards. In response to reports by UN bodies and following UK training, the Somali National Army took important steps to prevent the recruitment of children into Somalia's security forces. In December, the UN Secretary-General reported a sharp increase in the recruitment of children by the proscribed terrorist organisation, al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab was responsible for the attack in Mogadishu on 14 October which killed at least 512 people – Africa's most deadly terror attack to date.

Somalia retains the use of the death penalty. We continued to call on the Federal Government of Somalia to introduce a moratorium on its use.

Despite tentative progress, Somalia was one of the worst places in the world to be a woman in 2017. Two decades of civil war have left a legacy of extreme levels of violence against women and girls. Prevailing social norms legitimise female genital mutilation and cutting, which is nearly universal, including in Somaliland. Women and minority groups continued to be excluded from economic, social and political networks – a problem exacerbated by the Somali clan system. Somalia has one of the world's highest proportions of primary-age children out of school, with 51%[44] of girls not in school. The female illiteracy rate is 76%. A tiny minority of teachers are women. DFID's girls' education challenge supports 53,000 marginalised girls through improved access to education, better quality teaching and life skills training.

Child, early and forced marriage continued to occur, but some evidence suggests that it may be declining. Up to 80% of those internally displaced by conflict and drought were women and children, exacerbating their vulnerability. Early action to respond to drought, led by the UK, helped to avert famine and saved many lives. While the parliamentary elections of 2016 had seen progress in the representation of women (an increase from 14% to 24%, albeit missing the ambitious 30% target), in Somaliland there is only one female parliamentarian and no women at all in the upper house. Throughout 2017, the UK worked with female parliamentarians, political leaders, civil society activists and Federal Government institutions to strengthen the voices of women and to promote awareness of gender equality in policy making and public decision making. The UK also led work with AMISOM, the Federal Government and Federal Member States to deliver tailored gender training in the security sector to improve protection for vulnerable women and girls. The political environment in much of Somalia remained restrictive, particularly for women and members of minority groups – acutely so in areas under al-Shabaab control.

In Somaliland, presidential elections held in November led to the peaceful transfer of power. UK-funded election monitors judged them to be largely free and fair. A UK-supported voter registration process encouraged broad participation. However, for most of 2017 journalists across Somalia – including in Somaliland – continued to face significant restrictions, arbitrary detention and, in some areas, the possibility of assassination. The use of criminal law and the intelligence agencies to prosecute journalists using broadly defined national security concerns further curtailed freedoms and encouraged self-censorship. Female journalists continued to experience additional social stigma, illustrating the intersections of the forms of severe discrimination which women and girls face in Somalia.

In 2018, the UK will support Somalia in implementing the vision set out in the New Partnership for Somalia and endorsed at the London Conference in May 2017. Supporting security forces to provide protection and security for citizens across Somalia, while developing the rule of law and effective accountability for perpetrators of violations and abuse, will remain a top priority. The UK will work with the newly formed Human Rights Commission, parliament and other Somali institutions to strengthen human rights awareness and compliance, not least with regard to strengthening the promotions of gender equality and media freedom.

[44] https://www.education-inequalities.org/countries/somalia#?dimension=sex&group=|Female&year=latest