Somaliland - The Drama of the Displaced Persons Revealed in Amnesty Int’l Report – Part III

In two previous articles entitled "Somaliland’s Definite Rejection from the World Community Underscored by Amnesty Int’l Report–Part I"
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/95769) and "Devastating Amnesty Int’l Report Heralds the End of Somaliland’s Secessionism – Part II"
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/95778), I republished the new Amnesty International Report on Somalia that focuses on Human Rights’ violations in Somalia’s northern provinces that were forced to separate and form – due to malignant involvement of the racist Abyssinian tyranny – a secessionist, anti-Somali pseudo-state that nobody recognizes, "Somaliland".

In the present article, I republish further parts from the devastating Report; for better understanding of the Report’s scope and significance, I also include the Contents.

Somalia: Human Rights Challenges: Somaliland Facing Elections
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR52/001/2009

Index Number: AFR 52/001/2009
Date Published: 17 March 2009

In the lead up to, during and after the upcoming presidential and local elections, scheduled for 2009, both the Government of Somaliland and the international community should pay greater attention to the overall human rights situation in Somaliland and consider ways to protect human rights. Amnesty International has been monitoring, reporting on and promoting human rights in Somaliland since 1991. This report offers recommendations to improve the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Somaliland.

Somalia: Human Rights Challenges: Somaliland Facing Elections
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR52/001/2009/en/ec9271de-98aa-4ec4-a85e-500f901375a6/afr520012009en.pdf

Contents
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................2
2. Background .........................................................................................................3
3. Security Committees, Forced Returns and Unlawful Detentions................5
a. Security Committees ..........................................................................................5
b. Forced Returns ....................................................................................................7
c. Prisoners of Conscience: Journalists and Freedom of Expression ...............8
d. Prisoners of Conscience: Political Opposition Figures...................................8
4. Displaced Persons in Somaliland ....................................................................10
5. Human Rights in eastern Somaliland..............................................................13
6. Somaliland under International Law ..............................................................15
7. Defending Human Rights in Somaliland .......................................................17
8. Conclusion: Not Yet Equal Justice under Law as Elections Approach …..20
9. Recommandations...............................................................................................22
Appendix I ...............................................................................................................25
Appendix II ..............................................................................................................26

4. Displaced Persons in Somaliland

Lack of governance, instability and armed conflict in southern and central Somalia has also taken a toll on Somaliland, while the presence of tens of thousands of displaced southern Somalis in Somaliland is some testament to the relative peace and security in this area of the volatile Horn of Africa.

Ongoing armed conflict in southern and central Somalia between Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and allied Ethiopian forces13 against multiple non state armed groups, including al-Shabab factions and certain clan-based militias, has led to widespread and massive violence, causing the internal displacement of more than 1.3 million persons,14 and more than 450,000 refugees, from southern and central Somalia since the beginning of 2007.

There are at least six settlements of displaced persons in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa. These settlements originally emerged when displaced persons from northern Somalia, who had fled to Ethiopia and other countries as refugees, began to return from 1991. They have also been populated by impoverished members of indigenous ethnic minority communities.15

Now the settlements are also crowded with people who have fled southern Somalia, who have found relative security, albeit inadequate food, health care, education, shelter or jobs there. Somaliland officials have expressed concerns that without a formal registration process the government has no way of tracking displaced persons, and they have stated that they have received little international support to provide for displaced persons from Somalia. While the Government of Somaliland does not have an official policy of accepting displaced persons from Somalia, it has allowed tens of thousands to find refuge in its territory.16

We have been here [in Hargeisa] for three months now. One of my brothers was killed in front of me. I had to survive. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Peace is so precious, so dear. I have peace here. I want to go back but I can’t.

Sadia, aged 26, from Mogadishu, now in Hargeisa

When they killed my husband [in Mogadishu] I didn’t know what to do. I started screaming. But I have four kids. There was no one to help me. I was begging people to carry us with them. We got peace now [in Hargeisa] but nowhere to go and nothing to eat.

Hawa, aged 35

The status of displaced persons from southern and central Somalia who have fled to Hargeisa, the majority of whom are women with children, remains contested.

In Somaliland, which functions without international recognition, UN agencies, like the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and other international organizations classify them as internally displaced persons.17 The Government of Somaliland considers them refugees.18 In practice this dispute has resulted in a lack of registration or services being provided. Based on its own constitutional commitment to uphold the 1951 Refugee Convention, and according to its overall responsibility to protect the physical integrity of people, the Government of Somaliland should protect displaced persons it may call refugees within the territory it controls.

The Government of Somaliland possesses primary responsibility for the protection of displaced persons in Somaliland. Under the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, refugees have the right to be treated as favourably as possible, and not less favourably than aliens generally in the same circumstances with regards to housing (Article 21), public education (Article 22) and public relief (Article 23). These duties have been strengthened by UNHCR executive committee general guidelines (including 108), which call on states to take steps to prevent acts of violence against refugees, safeguard their physical safety and to facilitate access to effective legal remedies.19

However, when a state cannot or will not protect its own people, or where a country needs assistance, the international community also possesses a responsibility to help.20 Whether or not this dispute over designation is soon resolved, the human rights of displaced persons must be protected, according to the spirit if not the letter of the law.21 Responsibilities to assist displaced persons attach to government and international agencies no matter how these individuals are categorized.

UNHCR is responsible for both refugees and IDPs, although which durable solutions are open to them is dependent on their categorization. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide for the protection of internally displaced persons against acts of violence (principle 10) and their property and possessions (principle 21), and reaffirm the need for international humanitarian organizations and other actors to give due regard to the protection needs of the internally displaced when offering assistance (principle 27). These guidelines also provide for the provisioning of medical care and attention "to the fullest extent practicable," including psychological and social services" (principle 19) and the provisioning of free, compulsory primary level education (principle 23).

From October to December 2007, twenty-four young Somali journalists, including several women, who had been reporting for HornAfrik, Radio Simba, Radio Shabelle and other news outlets, also arrived in Hargeisa after receiving death threats or being detained in Mogadishu.22 These journalists were questioned in Hargeisa in December 2007 by several Somaliland government officials, who accused them of propagating "unionist" material on the internet,23 and who threatened to expel them from Somaliland. Government officials also accused these individuals of "practicing journalism" in Somaliland and writing stories against "Ethiopian friends." A formal expulsion order was issued by Somaliland’s Commissioner of Police on 4 December, giving them 24 hours to leave Somaliland. The deadline for the expulsion was extended several times. As a result of the expulsion order the journalists were at risk of forcible return to Somalia.

Article 35 of Somaliland’s Constitution states that "Any foreigner who enters the country lawfully or is lawfully resident in the country and who requests political asylum may be accorded asylum if he fulfils the conditions set out in the law governing asylum." Somaliland authorities are also obligated to follow customary rules of international law. Under customary law, codified in the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), Article 33, "No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

Although the order to expel the displaced journalists was not formally rescinded, after international protest against it, the government agreed in December 2007 that no expulsion would take place as long as these journalists refrained from "practicing journalism" in Somaliland. Most of them later left for other countries, where some of them have sought asylum.

Notes

13 Ethiopian troops were withdrawn from Somalia by the end of 2008.

14 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) figure. This includes some 3-400,000 long term Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

15 Extra-clan minorities in Somaliland include the Dami, Tumal, Midgan, Yibr and others. These traditionally caste-based groups have historically experienced economic, social and political discrimination in Somaliland and throughout Somalia.

16 There is no official figure for southern Somali displaced persons in Somaliland, but the government estimate, widely considered high, puts the total population of Somaliland at 3.5 million. This means that any major influx can be expected to have a serious impact.

17According to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/7/b/principles/htm), internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

18 Under Article 1(a)(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is a person who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country, or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

19 According to the UN Guiding Principles, Principle 3: (1) National authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons within their jurisdiction; and (2) Internally displaced persons have the right to request and to receive protection and humanitarian assistance from these authorities. They shall not be persecuted or punished for making such a request. According to Principle 25: (1) The primary duty and responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons lies with national authorities. (2) International humanitarian organizations and other appropriate actors have the right to offer their services in support of the internally displaced. Such an offer shall not be regarded as an unfriendly act or interference in a State's internal affairs and shall be considered in good faith. Consent thereto shall not be arbitrarily withheld, particularly when authorities concerned are unable or unwilling to provide the required humanitarian assistance. (3) All authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate the free passage of humanitarian assistance and grant persons engaged in the provision of such assistance rapid and unimpeded access to the internally displaced.

20 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

21 UNHCR’s core mandate, as set out in Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, G.A. res. 428 (V), annex, 5 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 20) at 46, U.N. Doc. A/1775 (1950)), is to provide, on a nonpolitical and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees and to seek permanent solutions for them. While the Statute makes no reference to IDPs, it recognises in Article 9 that the High Commissioner may also "engage in such activities … as the General Assembly may determine, within the limits of the resources placed at his disposal." Based on this Article, a series of UN General Assembly Resolutions have acknowledged UNHCR’s particular humanitarian expertise and encouraged its involvement in situations of internal displacement.

The main criteria governing the organisation’s involvement with IDPs are set out in Resolution 53/125 of December 1998, in which the General Assembly "reaffirms its support for the role of the Office of the High Commissioner in providing humanitarian assistance and protection to internally displaced persons, on the basis of specific requests from the Secretary-General or the competent organs of the United Nations and with the consent of the State concerned, taking into account the complementarities of the mandates and expertise of other relevant organisations…."

22 Amnesty International, Somaliland: Journalists who fled grave human rights violations in Mogadishu under threat of expulsion, (AI index: AFR 52/017/2007).

23 This refers to reporting which is seen to promote Somaliland’s reunification with Somalia and to oppose international recognition of Somaliland as an independent state.