V. Role of International Actors

Key international actors, including the UN, the US, the EU, and, more recently, Turkey and members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), have continued their support for the Transition Federal Government despite significant internal political wrangling since late 2010. Priority transitional tasks for the government have not been achieved, which affects the overall human rights situation.

There are many challenges to ensuring that parties to the Somali conflict act in accordance with international law, not least the fact al-Shabaab is an armed movement that largely rejects foreign influence and criticism of its human rights abuses. But even where key international actors have leverage, such as with the TFG, its partners and funders have largely failed to put sufficient pressure on the TFG to improve its human rights record. Where discussions of potential consequences of failing to achieve basic political and transitional tasks have been initiated among the TFG’s international partners, these have not sufficiently addressed human rights issues.

The “Roadmap” adopted under the auspices of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) in September 2011 is seen by the TFG’s international partners as the main instrument for holding the TFG to account during the final year of the transition period. However, it contains limited reference to human rights issues. The Roadmap refers to ending the recruitment of children but fails to include clear and concrete benchmarks to monitor compliance, vaguely refers to compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law, again with no clear benchmarks, and does not examine wider abuses and related issues.

On violations of children’s rights more specifically, UNICEF, the UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, and more recently the UN Security Council, as well as the US, have called on the TFG to end the use and recruitment of children through the implementation of an action plan. However, these calls and the failure to comply have not been accompanied by concrete consequences for the TFG, for example, by the imposition of targeted sanctions or withholding of military assistance. And calls for accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including grave abuses of child’s rights, have been perfunctory. 

In July 2011 the UN Security Council passed a resolution that expanded the criteria for sanctionable offenses in Somalia to include grave violations against children, including the recruitment or use of child soldiers, killing and maiming, sexual and gender-based violence, attacks on schools, and abduction. The Security Council affirmed that targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, can be applied to both individuals and entities for such violations.[278] While it also extended the mandate of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea to include monitoring and reporting on grave violations of children’s rights, including the recruitment of children and attacks on schools, the Security Council did not increase staff or resources of the monitoring group, raising doubts as to the effectiveness of the measure. Furthermore, while channels for reporting on grave violations of children’s rights in Somalia by all warring parties exist, monitoring mechanisms lack capacity. The Human Rights Unit within UNPOS, for example, has to date failed to appoint a full-time child rights expert. 

The policies of key donors, including the EU and the US, have continued to focus on institutional capacity-building and TFG governance. Key sectors including protection and education have often been sidelined. For example, funds required under the 2011 Consolidated Appeals Process for Somalia for both the education and protection sectors were insufficient: only 62 percent of requested funds for the former and only 18 percent for the latter were met.[279]

The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits certain categories of military assistance to governments involved in recruiting or using child soldiers. In June 2011 the US State Department identified Somalia as one of six governments implicated in such use. Although State Department-requested assistance for Somalia in fiscal year 2012 included $51 million in peacekeeping assistance for militaries participating in AMISOM, this assistance was not one of the categories prohibited under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. Pending legislation would amend the law to explicitly prohibit peacekeeping assistance to governments using child soldiers.

The UN and donors should be more robust in their engagement with the TFG and in particular ensure that key human rights benchmarks are achieved in the final year of the transition period. The drafting, adoption, and implementation of an action plan to end child recruitment that includes the establishment of stringent, systematic age screening should be among these benchmarks.