Recommendations

To Somalia’s National Government

Law Enforcement

• Ensure that the population under effective control, including internally displaced people, is treated in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law, including the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa.
• Take all necessary measures to ensure that sufficient, competent, and trained police are deployed to protect displaced communities in Mogadishu, including in new relocation sites, and other government-controlled areas. Give special attention to the security needs of women and girls, such as by:
  • recruiting more female police officers to act as focal points in police stations;
  • training police and other security personnel on responding to sexual violence;
  • adopting procedures to protect the confidentiality of persons reporting sexual assault; and
  • after the above measures have been adopted, directing the police to conduct public outreach to strengthen trust in the police so that more cases of sexual violence and other crimes will be reported.
• Appropriately discipline or prosecute members of the Somali National Army, Somali Police Force, non-state armed groups, and government officials responsible for serious human rights violations, including abuses committed against displaced people and misappropriation of humanitarian assistance.
• Government and military officials at the highest levels should issue clear public statements to Somali National Army and Somali Police Force that abuses against IDPs will be appropriately punished.
• Establish clear vetting procedures to identify and remove during the recruitment process into the Somali National Army and the Somali National Police Force individuals responsible for serious abuses.
• Ensure that police officers receive appropriate training on human rights, including on the specific rights of displaced people, responding to sexual violence, and other issues of immediate concern.
• Investigate the January 2013 prosecution of the woman alleging rape by security forces and the journalist who interviewed her with the aim of disciplining or prosecuting all officials responsible for abuses.
• The Ministry of Development and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister, should develop clear and credible government policies and responses to sexual violence.

Humanitarian Assistance

• Initiate, with the assistance of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and international agencies, a profiling exercise of the IDP population in Mogadishu to assess protection needs.
• Facilitate unhindered access by humanitarian agencies to civilians at risk and ensure they are able to carry out relief work free of harassment and other interference.
• Ensure that any forthcoming relocation of IDPs in Mogadishu or elsewhere is voluntary and that the IDPs are consulted throughout the process, kept fully informed of the reason for the relocation, and provided necessary security and assistance at the new relocation sites.
• Ensure that Somali humanitarian and human rights organizations are consulted and included in discussions around relocation plans for the displaced population.

Human Rights Compliance

• Support an enlargement of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights within the new UN mission with significantly increased capacity to monitor and report on human rights violations.
• Support efforts by UN humanitarian agencies to establish improved systems for monitoring and responding to sexual violence against displaced people and other abuses.
• Extend a standing invitation to all UN special procedures, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced people and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, to visit Somalia.
• Support ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa; the Convention on the Rights of the Child 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”).
• Support the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—to document and map serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.
• Impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to reviewing the country’s position and moving towards abolition.

To the Somali Parliament and Council of Ministers

• Create a committee to urgently examine and make recommendations for the disarmament and demobilization of militias in Mogadishu and other areas under government control.
• Vote for the ratification of the human rights treaties listed above.

To the Governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and Turkey, and the European Union, the African Union, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

• Call on the Somali government to take steps to improve protection of internally displaced people and hold to account members of the security forces and other government officials responsible for abuses against IDPs.
• Support efforts to provide appropriate training to members of the Somali armed forces and police on human rights, including on displaced people and responding to sexual violence. Ensure that the deployment of competent and trained police forces to IDP relocation sites is a priority.
• Support the inclusion of an enlarged OHCHR presence in the new UN mission with sufficient resources, including staff with expertise on sexual violence, and capability to conduct significantly increased human rights monitoring and reporting.
• Urge the Somali government to improve the response of police to sexual and gender-based violence as detailed in the recommendation above.
• Ensure that any future relocations of the displaced in Mogadishu or other government-controlled areas are voluntary and that accountable and competent police forces are deployed at relocation sites.
• Call on the Somalia government, including the Ministry of Development and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister, to develop clear and credible government policies and responses to sexual violence.
• Encourage UN agencies and grantees to disclose contracts to the UN Risk Management Unit, in line with the recommendations of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea that information shared should include sub-contracts and details of implementers.
• Support the UN Risk Management Unit to ensure it has the resources required to function effectively.
• Strengthen third-party monitoring of grantees and of assistance to minimize the misappropriation of assistance.
• Support the establishment of clear vetting procedures to identify and remove individuals responsible for serious abuses during recruitment into the Somali National Army and the Somali National Police Force.
• Suspend financial and other assistance to military and police units implicated in serious human rights abuses, including sexual violence.
• Support an appropriate Somali government and UN profiling exercise of the IDP population in Mogadishu to assess protection needs.
• Increase support to the protection sector in Somalia by ensuring that protection cluster funding targets within the forthcoming Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) are met and adopting other appropriate measures.
• Support improvements to the protection monitoring and reporting system by the protection cluster.
• Publicly support measures to tackle impunity and promote accountability in Somalia, including a UN commission of inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—to document serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.

To the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, and other humanitarian agencies implementing protection activities, and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator

• Support a government-led profiling exercise of the IDP population in Mogadishu to assess protection needs. The profiling exercise could later be extended to other parts of the country, security permitting.
• Press the Somali authorities to ensure that any future relocations of the displaced are voluntary and that accountable and competent police forces are deployed at relocation sites.
• UNHCR should finalize and implement its protection strategy, and significantly bolster current monitoring efforts by the protection cluster of rights abuses among IDPs and vulnerable groups.
• Expand the staff working for the protection cluster.
• Support the inclusion of an enlarged OHCHR presence in the new UN mission with capability to conduct significantly increased human rights monitoring and reporting.

To the UN Security Council

• Include an enlarged OHCHR presence in the new UN mission with sufficient resources, including staff with expertise on sexual violence, and capability to conduct significantly increased human rights monitoring and reporting.
• Request that the UN secretary-general ensures that all UN agencies and offices in Somalia comply with the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on UN support to non-UN security forces, and report back on implementation of the policy, and that they disclose all contracts to the Risk Management Unit in line with the recommendations of the UN Monitoring Group that information shared should include sub-contracts and details of implementers.
• Mandate a UN commission of inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—to document and map 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 human rights mandate, and support the recruitment of at least one additional human rights expert to the group.

To the UN Secretary-General

• Request that the UN Security Council include an enlarged OHCHR presence in the new UN mission with sufficient resources, including staff with expertise on sexual violence, and capability to conduct significantly increased human rights monitoring and reporting.
• Support the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry—or a comparable, appropriate mechanism—to document and map serious international crimes committed in Somalia and recommend measures to improve accountability.

To the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Support the establishment of an enlarged OHCHR presence within the new UN mission, including staff with expertise on sexual violence, and move quickly to expand OHCHR’s presence whenever possible. Ensure that OHCHR’s presence in Somalia expands its monitoring of human rights abuses in south-central Somalia and other parts of Somalia, and that the expanded presence issues frequent reports on the human rights situation.

To the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Support efforts to provide appropriate training to members of the Somali armed forces and police on human rights, including on the rights of displaced persons, and responding to sexual violence.

To the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons

• Request an invitation to carry out a follow-up visit to Somalia.