Saturday 30, March 2024 {HMC} WASHINGTON — Somalia changed its constitution Saturday during a parliamentary vote that, among other things, gives the country’s president the power to appoint and dismiss a prime minister.

After weeks of intense debate, Somalia’s bicameral federal parliament approved amendments to the first four chapters in the country’s provisional constitution.

In a joint session in Mogadishu, lawmakers voted on each chapter individually before casting votes on the overall amendments proposed by the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission, or ICRIC.

The speaker of the Lower House, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, announced a significant majority of members were in favor of amending the constitution.

“A total of 212 members of the Lower House and 42 members of the Upper House supported the amendments, with no abstentions or rejections. Therefore, the amendment has been approved with a unanimous vote,” said Madobe.

Hussein Idow, chairperson of the Constitutional Review Committee, said that three proposed provisions in a draft related to religion would get further review.

“This decision of the postponement of the religion provisions aims to ensure that these provisions align with the principles and values of the Somali people,” he said.

“This provisional constitution has been under review for nearly a decade. From 2012, three parliaments have tried to amend it, but the efforts to finalize the review gained momentum in late 2023. Thanks to the 11th parliament of Somalia for daring to conduct the amendment,” said Idow.

President and prime minister

One key provision in the approved draft establishes that Somalia will have a president and a prime minister. The president will hold the authority to appoint and remove the prime minister from office, an amendment that replaces the previous requirement for the prime minister to obtain a vote of confidence from parliament and allowing more flexibility in the executive branch.

Somalia’s politics are characterized by disputes among Somali presidents and prime ministers, which stem from a complex political landscape that has been shaped by historical, regional, clan-based and ideological factors.

Since the establishment of the office of president in 1960, there have been nine official presidents in Somalia. The last four presidents, including the current president in his first term, have fired a prime minister with the help of parliament.

One key aspect of the disputes revolves around the distribution of power and resources among different clans and regions within Somalia.

According to constitutional experts, the power struggle between the two top offices has always been sparked by the way their roles are designated in the constitution.

Among the proposed constitution amendments was a provision that would have turned Somalia into a system of government in which the president is both head of state and head of government, and the ceremonial duties are delegated to a vice president. During review the parliament removed that provision.

Multi-party system

The amended constitution sets the term of office for government constitutional bodies at five years and refers to regional state presidents as leaders.

It also establishes the presence of three political parties in the country, promoting a multi-party system.

Some political stakeholders, including former Somali Presidents Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, as well as Puntland state leaders, strongly opposed that amendment.

They expressed concerns about the lack of consensus among political actors regarding the changes.

In a separate statement released Saturday, a group of influential politicians, including former prime ministers Hassan Ali Khaire and Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, have vehemently criticized President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for being responsible for the approval of the amendment.

“The president has led the nation to a dark path, turmoil, political uncertainty and jeopardized the state building efforts by pushing the parliament to approve controversial provisions in the constitution,” said the statement.

In February, the ICRIC submitted suggested amendments to parliament, focusing on the first four chapters. Those amendments cover the age of maturity for girls and the criminalization of female genital mutilation. The approved amendments establish the age of maturity at 15 and the age for responsibility at 18 — suggesting that everyone under 18 should remain protected by juvenile justice standards.

But rights groups say this would risk reinforcing existing traditional norms, which can force girls to marry at the age of 15.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch warned that the constitutional proposal in its current form puts children at risk.

“It would place girls in particular at greater risk of child marriage, which affects their health, notably reproductive health, their access to education and their protection from other forms of abuse,” Human Rights Watch said.

“Somalia’s parliament should resist efforts to weaken constitutional protections for children, especially girls,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Somalia’s donors should press the government to carry through on its claims that it is taking significant steps to meet its international human rights commitments.”

SOURCE VOA

Saturday March 30, 2024

Somalia’s bicameral federal Parliament approved the amendment of the first four chapters of the country’s provisional Constitution on Saturday following several weeks of heated debates in the Parliament.

The lawmakers voted on the four chapters one by one before casting their votes for the overall amendments of the Constitution proposed by the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission.

The Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission stated that three provisions in the draft related to religion will be sent for further research.

The Speaker of the Lower House, Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nor Madobe, announced that 212 members of the Lower House and 42 members of the Upper House voted in favour of amending the Constitution. No lawmakers abstained or rejected the amendment.

Saturday March 30, 2024
By Naima Said Salah – Mogadishu

Warning: This article contains descriptions that some people may find upsetting

 

On a beach in the Somali capital, Mogadishu stand six tall concrete posts planted in the pure white sand. The waves of the bright blue Indian Ocean break gently nearby – and often bear witness to some grim events.

Every so often the security forces bring men to this place, tie them to the posts with plastic ropes, place black hoods over their heads and shoot them dead.

The members of the specially trained firing squad also have their faces hidden.

The dead men’s heads flop down but their bodies remain upright, lashed to the poles. Their ragged shirts and sarongs flap in the breeze.

Some have been convicted by the military court of belonging to the Islamist group al-Shabab, which has spread terror in Somalia for nearly 20 years and controls large parts of the country.

Others are soldiers found guilty of murdering civilians or colleagues. Occasionally the court deals with common criminals sentenced to death because their offences are so serious.

At least 25 people were executed on the beach last year.

The latest person facing execution is Said Ali Moalim Daud who was sentenced to death on 6 March for locking his wife, Lul Abdiaziz, in a room and setting it on fire. He said he had burned her alive because she had asked for a divorce.

Just behind the killing ground is a small informal settlement in Hamar Jajab district – full of crumbling dwellings and makeshift shelters where about 50 families live on the site of what used to be a police academy.

“As soon as my five little boys come home from school, they rush down to the beach to run about or play football,” says Fartun Mohammed Ismail, one of the shoreside residents of the old police training centre.

“They use the execution poles as goalposts,” she says.

“I worry about my children’s health because they play in the blood spilt where people are shot.

“The area is not cleaned up after executions.”

The graves of those who have been shot are found around the beach.

Ms Ismail says her children are used to violence and insecurity because they were born in Mogadishu, a city affected by conflict for 33 years.

Yet she and other parents feel that playing in the blood of convicted criminals is too much.

However, it is hard to stop the children from joining their friends on the beach when most parents are trying to scrape together a living so are not always around to intervene.

Executions usually take place early in the morning, between 06:00 and 07:00.

Only journalists are invited to witness the killings but nobody stops local residents, including children, from gathering around and watching.

In fact the beach was chosen as a place of execution in 1975 by Siad Barre when he was president precisely because locals nearby could watch.

His military government erected the poles for some Islamic clerics who were shot on the spot for opposing a new family law that gave girls and boys equal rights in inheritance.

Today only the posts remain, although crowds are no longer actively encouraged.

Nonetheless parents worry that the children who play on the execution ground risk being shot when someone is put to death.

They say their offspring are terrified of police and soldiers because they only associate them with killing people in front of their eyes.

 

“I struggle to sleep at night and feel acutely anxious all the time,” admits Faduma Abdullahi Qasim, who also lives in the neighbourhood within metres of the execution ground.

“Sometimes I hear gunshots in the morning and know someone has been put to death,” she says.

“I try to keep my children indoors all the time. We are sad and inactive. I hate going outside and seeing blood seeping into the sand beside me.”

Although most of the residents who live in the neighbourhood are traumatised by living so close to the execution ground, many Somalis support the death penalty, especially for members of al-Shabab.

Ms Qasim is unusual in opposing it – especially given that her 17-year-old son, who worked as a cleaner at a snack bar, was killed in a huge double car bombing in Mogadishu in October 2022. More than 120 people died and 300 were injured in the attack, blamed on al-Shabab.

“I don’t know personally the people who are being executed but I believe the practice is inhumane,” she says.

It is not only children from the beachside neighbourhood who play on the sand near the execution posts.

Young people from other parts of the city gather there, especially on Fridays, Somalia’s weekend.

One of them is 16-year-old Abdirahman Adam.

“My brother and I come here every Friday to swim and play football on the beach,” he says.

“My sister comes too, dressed in her finest clothes so she can post and look beautiful when we take pictures of her.”

He and the others that flock to the beach do know about the executions and the graves of people who were shot there – but they go regardless.

For them the central and beautiful location is more important.

“Our classmates are jealous when they see the photos. They don’t know we are hanging out at an execution ground.”

Naima Said Salah is a journalist with Somalia’s only all-women media house, Bilan Media.

Saturday March 30, 2024

NEW DELHI — India’s navy said Friday it intercepted a fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea after a suspected hijacking, its latest anti-piracy operation after a spate of regional attacks on shipping.

Two Indian vessels had approached the Iranian-flagged FV Al Kamar 786 around 165 kilometers (103 miles) southwest of the Yemeni island of Socotra, not far from the eastern tip of Somalia.

An operation was “currently underway by the Indian Navy towards rescue of hijacked FV & its crew,” the navy said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The statement added that nine armed pirates were believed to have taken over the vessel. It did not say how many crew members were aboard.

India’s navy has been deployed continuously off Somalia since 2008.

It stepped up anti-piracy efforts last year following a surge in maritime assaults, including in the Arabian Sea and by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

This month, the Indian navy rescued 19 crew members off the Maltese-flagged cargo ship MV Ruen, which had been hijacked by Somali pirates in December.

On Saturday, it brought 35 Somali nationals accused of the hijacking to Mumbai aboard the warship INS Kolkata, which had led the rescue operation, to face a piracy trial in an Indian court.

Saturday March 30, 2024

Somalia Parliament in session. The lawmakers are set to make a decision on whether or not to cut the majority age from 18 to 15.

Somalia’s parliament should reject any proposed constitutional amendments that would weaken rights protections for children, Human Rights Watch has said.

On March 30, 2024, both houses of parliament are expected to vote on the proposed amendments, which would reduce the age of majority – increasing the risk of child marriage and lowered juvenile justice standards – and possibly permit certain forms of female genital mutilation.

Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch said that Somalia’s parliament should resist efforts to weaken constitutional protections for children, especially girls,

“Somalia’s donors should press the government to carry through on its claims that it is taking significant steps to meet its international human rights commitments.”

Somalia’s 2012 provisional constitution has been under review for nearly a decade, but efforts to finalize the review have picked up since late 2023.

Somalia plan to reduce adult age to 15

In February, the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission sent parliament suggested amendments to the provisional constitution’s first four chapters, which includes articles on the age of majority and on the criminalization of female genital mutilation.

Under Somalia’s provisional constitution, a child is defined as a person under the age of 18. The proposed amendment states that the term child “refers to a person under the age of 15 years of maturity while the age of responsibility is 18 years, as defined in the law of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”

Adopting this standard would be contrary to Somalia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as anyone under 18.

The proposed amendment to set the age of “maturity” at 15 would place girls in particular at greater risk of child marriage, which affects their health, notably reproductive health, their access to education, and their protection from other forms of abuse, Human Rights Watch said.

Girls Not Brides, an international group that works to prevent child marriage, has reported that 17 percent of girls in Somalia were married before by 15, and 36 percent by 18.

Exposing girls to exploitations

The proposed amendments also include physical development as the determining factor in a person’s majority. This is contrary to international standards, which call upon governments to make determinations of adult competence based on “emotional, mental and intellectual maturity,” and not physical maturity.

The proposed amendments distinguish the 15-year age of maturity from an 18-year age of responsibility, suggesting that everyone under 18 would remain protected by juvenile justice standards.

However, in practice, this new age of majority risks reinforcing existing ambiguities in Somali law around the age of majority that could heighten children’s vulnerabilities, Human Rights Watch said.

Children in Somalia have long been subject to arrest, detention, and custodial sentences as adults, including in capital cases.

During President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s first term in office, Human Rights Watch found that authorities across Somalia had treated boys suspected of affiliation with the armed Islamist group Al-Shabab as adults in violation of international law.

Intelligence agencies threatened, beat, and in some cases tortured boys in custody. Military courts have also tried children as adults.

Read also: Somalia’s worsening drought could displace one million people by April

Female genital mutilation in Somalia

The proposed constitutional amendments also raise concerns regarding other harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that Somalia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world with 99 per cent of girls and women ages 15 to 49 having undergone genital cutting.

Somalia’s provisional constitution is ambiguous with respect to female genital mutilation. It states that: “Female circumcision is a cruel and degrading customary practice and is tantamount to torture. The circumcision of girls is prohibited.”

 

However, the provision does not define female circumcision, which may or may not be interpreted to mean the same thing as female genital mutilation.

The constitutional review should ensure that a complete ban on all forms of FGM is enshrined in the constitution, which would facilitate the government’s development of a legislative and policy framework to eradicate all forms of FGM, Human Rights Watch said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classifed four types of FGM. All forms of female genital mutilation are a form of violence and discrimination against women and girls, involving the partial or complete removal of external female genitalia or injuring female genital organs without medical cause.

It has no health benefits and leads to immediate and long-term harm for women and girl’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, including death in some cases.

Human Rights Watch research in various countries across the world shows that women and girls experienced fear before being cut, and the cutting had a serious toll on their health.

This includes excessive bleeding, shock, infection, complications during childbirth, complications during menstruation, lack of or reduced sexual pleasure, infertility, and other long-term gynecological issues.

Depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychosexual problems are also common.

UN human rights treaty bodies have repeatedly called on Somalia to pass legislation criminalizing all forms of this harmful practice.

In 2021, the Somali government committed during its review by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to “eradicating traditional harmful practices.”

“Somalia’s parliament appears poised to adopt amendments to the country’s constitution that could subject generations of children to harmful practices,” Bader said. “Constitutional reform should instead assist the government to better protect the rights of children.”