Recommendations

To the Transitional Federal Government:

Regarding the Presence of Children within TFG Forces and TFG-Aligned Militias

• Hold appropriately accountable all individuals found to be conscripting or using children under age 18 in its armed forces, consistent with widely accepted international standards. Continue to issue clear public statements to TFG force commanders and soldiers prohibiting the forced recruitment and use of children under age 18. End all recruitment and use of children under age 18 by TFG-aligned militias.
• Enact legislation that makes the forced recruitment and use of children under 18 in armed forces (and any recruitment and use by armed groups) a criminal offense.
• Develop and adopt a national action plan to end the recruitment and use of children within the TFG forces. Include clear and concrete steps to be achieved within a limited timeframe including:
  • A halt to all child recruitment;
  • Access to bases, camps, training facilities, recruitment centers, and other relevant installations for ongoing monitoring and verification of compliance;
  • Provision of verifiable information regarding measures taken to ensure the accountability of perpetrators; and
  • Implementation of an agreed prevention strategy to address violations.
• Establish rigorous and systematic screening procedures and standards to ensure that no children under the age of 18 are conscripted into TFG armed forces, and that all recruits are screened according to the same high level of standards. Do not recruit individuals where there is reasonable doubt that they are not of the lawful recruitment age. Allow independent monitors to take part in the recruitment process, to monitor age during salary disbursements, and to visit TFG facilities to identify underage recruits.
• Cooperate with UNICEF and other child protection agencies to demobilize children within TFG forces and TFG-aligned militias and transfer them to appropriate civilian rehabilitation and reintegration programs that include educational and vocational training as well as counseling, in accordance with the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups (“Paris Principles”) of 2007.
• Make the absence of children within militia forces a precondition for integrating these militias into the TFG forces and police. 

Regarding the Capture of Child Soldiers by the TFG or TFG-Affiliates

• Ensure that standard procedures are developed to transfer captured and “escaped” children promptly to civilian rehabilitation and reintegration programs. Children should not be detained solely for their association with armed forces.
• Any children accused of crimes under international or national law allegedly committed while associated with armed groups should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards—notably that detention is used only as a measure of last resort, that children are detained separate from adults, that they have access to legal counsel and that the best interest of the child is the primary consideration. Provide education and other reintegration and rehabilitation services.
• Allow independent and unhindered monitoring notably by specialized child protection services of all TFG detention facilities, including high-security sites. 

Regarding Schools and Military Operations

• Cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians, and take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack against military objectives to avoid or minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, including schools.
• Map key civilian infrastructure, including schools, with the assistance of relevant agencies, including the Education Cluster. Use this map to identify and protect schools in areas of TFG military operations.
• Fully investigate all attacks damaging schools in areas under TFG control, where feasible, in order to identify and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.
• Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which, among other things, prohibits as a war crime intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to education, provided they are not military objectives, during armed conflicts.

Other Recommendations to the TFG

• Ensure that all credible allegations of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by TFG forces and aligned armed groups are promptly, impartially, and transparently investigated, and that those responsible for serious abuses, regardless of rank, are held to account.
• Reinstate the post of State Minister on Child Protection and Human Rights within the TFG.
• Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its three optional protocols, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (“Maputo Protocol”).
• Ensure that trainings for the TFG forces and personnel include appropriate and effective training on international humanitarian law, including regarding the protection of civilians and civilian objects and protection of children’s rights.
• Call for the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—by the UN to document serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.

To al-Shabaab

• Immediately cease recruitment of children under 18 years old and release all children currently in al-Shabaab forces who are under 18, consistent with widely accepted international standards.
• Cooperate with UNICEF and other child protection agencies to hand over children in al-Shabaab forces to appropriate civilian demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs.
• Ensure that any commander found to be recruiting children or using children for other purposes in training camps and on the front lines is appropriately held to account.
• Immediately end the abduction of girls and women and release all girls and women abducted for forced marriage or other purposes.
• Ensure that schools are identified and protected and that students, teachers, and school administrators are able to safely leave school buildings during military operations where they may be at risk.
• Cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians, and take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack against military objectives to avoid or minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, including schools.
• Immediately cease all occupation or use of schools and school compounds where students and teachers are present. Cease using schools to provide military training and as weapons caches, or to engage in military operations.
• Immediately issue a public order directing all commanders and forces to cease attacks on schools, teachers, and students, and stating that those responsible for such attacks will be held to account.
• Uphold the right to education by ceasing to improperly interfere in the curriculum of schools or engaging in classroom activities designed to encourage the recruitment of children into al-Shabaab forces.
• Halt all measures that discriminate against women and girls, including restrictions on their work, travel, and attire.
• Appropriately hold to account all al-Shabaab members and local administrators, regardless of rank, who commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses.

To TFG-Affiliated Militias

• Issue clear public statements to all commanders and forces ordering the immediate end of all recruitment and use of children under 18 in its forces. 
• Cooperate with UNICEF and other child protection agencies in order to urgently identify and demobilize children under age 18 and transfer them to appropriate civilian rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
• Ensure that any commander found to be recruiting children or using children for other purposes in training camps and on the front lines is appropriately held to account.
• Take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from attacks and otherwise minimize harm to the civilian population.
• Ensure that schools are identified and protected during military operations and, to the extent that is feasible, seek to ensure that students and teachers are able to safely leave school buildings during military operations where they may be at risk.
• Appropriately hold to account all commanders and other personnel, regardless of rank, who commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.

To Foreign Parties to the Conflict: AMISOM and the African Union, Kenya, and Ethiopia

• Cooperate with UNICEF and other child protection agencies to transfer all captured children to civilian rehabilitation and reintegration programs.  
• Cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians or are anticipated to cause disproportionate civilian harm, and take all feasible precautions in attacks against military objectives to avoid or minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, including schools.
• Map out key civilian infrastructure, including schools, with the assistance of relevant agencies, including the Education Cluster, in order to ensure that schools in areas of military operations are identified and protected.
• Make efforts to ensure that students and teachers are able to safely leave school buildings during military operations where they may be at risk.
• Ensure that all credible allegations of human rights and humanitarian law violations by armed forces are promptly, impartially, and transparently investigated and that those responsible for serious abuses, regardless of rank, are held to account. In particular, fully investigate all attacks that damage schools in areas of AMISOM military operations, where feasible, in order to identify and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.
• Ensure that all deployed personnel receive adequate and appropriate training in international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects and the special protections afforded to children during armed conflict.

To All States and the Donor Community in Somalia

• Call on all parties to immediately end the recruitment and use of children as soldiers in Somalia, rape and forced marriage, and attacks on students, teachers, and schools.
• Make clear that the development and implementation of a national action plan to end the recruitment and use of children within TFG forces is a priority for the remainder of the transitional period.
• Provide the TFG with the necessary support and capacity to systematically and effectively vet its recruits by age in order to prevent the recruitment and use of children within its forces.
• Offer the necessary support to appropriate child protection activities and demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs that include vocational training programs, education programs, and medical and psycho-social counseling activities including for survivors of sexual violence, both inside of Somalia, including in IDP camps, and in refugee camps in neighboring countries.
• Assist the TFG in ensuring that the detention of children complies with international standards—notably that detention is used only as a measure of last resort, that children are detained separately from adults, that they have access to legal counsel, and that rehabilitation and reintegration and the best interests of the child are prioritized.
• Call on the TFG to allow independent and unhindered monitoring by specialized child protection services of all TFG detention facilities, including high-security sites. 
• Increase support to the education and protection sectors in Somalia by ensuring that education and protection funding targets within the forthcoming Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) are met.
• Ensure that trainings provided to the TFG forces and personnel include appropriate and effective training in international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects and protection of children’s rights.
• Support and fund an increase in the capacity of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to monitor rights violations.
• Support and fund a UN Commission of Inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—by the UN to document serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.

To the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council

• Intensify pressure on the TFG to immediately adopt and promptly implement a time-bound UN action plan to end the recruitment and use of children, including by establishing effective screening procedures to ensure that children are not recruited into the TFG or included in aligned militia that are integrated into the TFG armed forces.
• Through its sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea, impose targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on individuals and entities responsible for violations against children, including the recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, sexual and gender-based violence, and attacks on schools, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2002 (2011).
• Request systematic reporting on attacks on schools, students, and teachers and actions by parties to the conflict that impede children’s access to education, including the military use of schools, through the UN-led monitoring and reporting mechanism on children and armed conflict.
• Support an increase in the capacity of the OHCHR to monitor rights violations and to appoint a full-time child rights expert.
• Support and fund a UN Commission of Inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—by the UN to document serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.
• Ensure that the UN monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea receives adequate support to fulfill its new expanded mandate, notably by allowing the recruitment of at least two additional human rights experts on the group.

To the Somalia Country Task Team of the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on Children and Armed Conflict in Somalia

• Increase monitoring of attacks on schools, students, and teachers and actions by parties to the conflict that impede children’s access to education, including the military use of schools, and other grave violations committed against children in the context of the conflict, as requested by the Security Council in Resolution 1998 of July 2011. Ensure that the information gathered is fed into relevant channels, including the Security Council working group on children and armed conflict and program development.
• Collect information regarding specific individuals and entities responsible for violations against children that may be subject to targeted sanctions under Security Council Resolution 2002 (2011) and make this information available to the Sanctions Committee on Somalia and Eritrea.

To the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Other Child Protection Agencies in Somalia and Kenya

• Greatly expand demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs for children formerly associated with fighting forces and children recruited for forced marriage, including education and vocational training programs, alternative livelihood programs, and medical and psychosocial support both, to the extent possible, inside Somalia and in refugee receiving countries.
• Hire staff with the expertise to identify and support children who have fled al-Shabaab and other militia groups and in Somalia and Kenya (Dadaab and Eastleigh).
• Work with donors in Kenya to secure more dedicated resources to develop urban child protection programs that support children formerly associated with armed groups to obtain safe housing, education, and other skills.
• Work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kenya to develop an outreach campaign to improve the access of children, especially those who are unaccompanied, to UNHCR registration and to psycho-social and education programs.

To the UN Political Office for Somalia and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Increase the number of human rights officers monitoring and publicly reporting on human rights abuses in Somalia, both within Somalia and in refugee camps in neighboring countries. Create a full-time position focusing on child’s rights violations and call on donors to ensure adequate funding.
• Increase collaboration with the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea in order to ensure that information regarding grave violations of child’s rights is systematically gathered and that the sanctions committee holds to account responsible parties.
• Initiate a historical documentation exercise on Somalia to map and document serious international crimes, and recommend measures to improve accountability.

To the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

• Continue to call on the TFG to fulfill its commitment to develop a national action plan to end the recruitment and use of children within the TFG forces, with clear and concrete steps to be achieved within a limited timeframe.
• Request that donors develop practical responses to support children who have escaped from fighting forces in Somalia.
• Call on the UN Security Council to significantly enhance the resources and capacity available to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.

To the EU, UNHCR, and UNICEF in Uganda

• Ensure that any children identified at the EU-financed Bihanga training program are offered the opportunity to seek asylum in Uganda.

To the United States Congress

• Amend the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 in order to include peacekeeping assistance under categories of US military assistance prohibited to governments using children as soldiers.

To UNHCR, UNICEF, and Other UN Agencies Working in Kenya and Ethiopia

• Ensure that mechanisms are in place to identify children formerly associated with armed groups upon arrival in refugee receiving countries. Ensure that children formerly associated with fighting forces are engaged in appropriate education and child protection programs alongside other vulnerable children and children from the community.
• Develop more clinical mental health programs for children within refugee camps who require more intensive support than those offered in general community-based psycho-social programs.
• Significantly increase education and vocational training activities in refugee camps, including by constructing more schools and employing more teachers.