SOMALIA: Global Open Day: Somali Women Concerned about High Levels of Rights Violations

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Somalia (SRSG), Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, invited Somali women to share their experiences, concerns and recommendations on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325 in Nairobi on 9 June, on the occasion of the Global Open Day on women, peace and security.

In welcoming the women, Special Representative Ould-Abdallah noted that SCR 1325 was an important recognition by UN member states that the full participation of women was vital to the restoration of peace and security in countries recovering from conflict. Although often spoken of only in terms of their vulnerability during conflict, women, and Somali women in particular, were a powerful group and critical partners for the success of any peace process.

In his opening remarks, Resident Coordinator Bowden said that there were few countries in the world where SCR 1325 was as important or as relevant as Somalia, and that the prioritization of women's rights could not wait until the end of conflict. He spoke of UN efforts to further gender justice in Somalia, in particular to increase the number of women in the police force and reform the security and justice systems to deal with sexual violence, as well as the increased emphasis on gender in the current UN country strategy.

Around 20 Somali women presented prepared statements on a range of issues, including sexual violence, female genital mutilation, displacement, maternal mortality, lack of access to basic means of survival, early and forced marriage, and education for girls. Common to all the statements was concern about the exacerbation of already high levels of violations of women's rights, as a result of the weakened state of law and order in Somalia and the spread of extremism.

Despite the prevailing conditions, the women strongly emphasized that they were not simply victims, but resilient survivors who daily risked their lives to stand for their rights and the rights of their fellow Somali women. They called on the international community to acknowledge and support their efforts by including them in equal measure in relief, recovery and development processes.

The Somali women also cited as an example the issue of gender quotas in parliament, observing that these hard-won, and still minimal, quotas have not been adhered to by the current government, yet little pressure has been exerted by the international community to fulfil these obligations. They further emphasized the need to ensure women's rights in the new constitution.

The women committed themselves to establishing a task force on SCR 1325 in Somalia, in order to raise awareness and push for the adoption of a comprehensive national action plan on its full implementation. This initiative was welcomed by the Resident Coordinator, who committed to working through the UN country team to explore how the task force might be supported.

Photo: UNIFEM