Human rights concerns in southern and central Somalia

mnesty International is concerned at the widespread violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including war crimes, and the dire humanitarian situation that civilians face in southern and central Somalia. Civilians are at high risk of being killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the internal armed conflict, and as a result of a situation of generalized violence and collapse of the rule of law. In addition, certain categories of persons also face targeted attacks, including unlawful killings, torture and otherill treatment, abductions, death threats and harassment. In areas where there is currently no fighting, civilians bear the brunt of arbitrary and repressive rules, violating their human rights, enforced by armed Islamist groups. Conflict and associated human rights abuses continue to cause massive displacement in Somalia. According to UNHCR, over 200,000 civilians were estimated to have fled their homes in Somalia between January and early September 2010, some 1.4 million are currently displaced within the country and 68,000 have been registered as newly arrived refugees in neighbouring countries in 2010. Given the difficulties of access to southern and central Somalia by independent observers, Amnesty International relies on information provided by local sources to document the situation, as well as accounts from Somali refugees who flee Somalia. Amnesty International interviewed hundreds of Somali refugees who had recently fled their country in March and June 2010 in Kenya.
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An Analysis of Humanitarian and Protection Operations for the Internally Displaced in Darfur

In 1951, the international community made a significant step with the introduction of United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was an international law that aimed to protect those who had become stateless and therefore faced a unique set of vulnerabilities and difficulties. As the nature of conflict has changed over the years, so have the types of humanitarian and human rights challenges that the international community face. The number of refugees has decreased to roughly 9.2 million people, the lowest figure in 25 years; while a new category, internally displaced persons (IDPs) has arisen. An IDP often flees his/her home for the same reasons as a refugee - national disaster, terrorism, persecution and violence. Yet they do not enjoy the same legal protection as refugees because they remain within their country of origin and do not cross the borders of their country. Currently, these is an estimated 25 million IDPs in over 52 countries.
The East African state of Sudan hosts more than a quarter of IDPs population in the world. The protracted conflicts that have engulfed the state since its independence in 1956 are a major cause of the increase in the IDP population in Sudan. That are about 6 million IDPs in the country and this is incomparable with situations in other countries.
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Resource Details [ back ] RSS Feeds Sudan Return and Reintegration Operations Annual Report 2009

In 2009 approximately 445,561 IDPs and refugees returned to southern Sudan and the Three Areas, a number similar to 2008 levels. Of this total, around 85 percent returned spontaneously, 11 percent returned in joint organized movements and 4 percent returned with state-organized returns. The statistic also showed a significant decrease in joint UN-IOM/GNU/GoSS-organized returns of IDPs, from over 28,000 in 2008 to about 11,000 in 2009, or almost sixty percent. This resulted largely from a change in UN policy to shift emphasis away from organized north-south IDP movements toward an accentuation of the need to focus on sustainable reintegration. The organized returned of refugees also decreased by 50 percent, from over 62,000 in 2008 to 32,000 this year. Similarly, the state-organized returns decreased dramatically by 70 percent, from 39,887 in 2008 to 11,884 this year. The statistics also revealed that, despite the lack of joint organized north-south returns and significant decrease in other organized movements, people were still returning to southern Sudan and the Three Areas. As anticipated, this year spontaneous returns even increased slightly from over 325,000 returnees last year to over 390,000 in 2009.Read more

Somaliland Holds Credible Presidential Election – IRI

HARGEISA (Somalilandpress) — IRI found that Somaliland’s election was peaceful, without major incident and generally met international standards. Hundreds of thousands of Somalilanders turned out to vote in their fourth election, and although wanting international recognition, did not wait to continue to build their nascent democracy. The international community should credit such democratic progress and the example it sets for others.
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Doubts Rise in Rwanda as Election Is Held

KIGALI, Rwanda — President Paul Kagame uses Twitter. He has lunched at Google. He started out as a skinny rebel fighter in the bush, marched into Rwanda’s capital in the midst of a genocide and then rose to make his country one of the developing world’s most orderly and crime-free societies.
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Istanbul declaration (Istanbul, Turkey - 22 may 2010)

Istanbul declaration (Istanbul, Turkey - 22 may 2010)

The Istanbul Conference on Somalia took place in Istanbul from 21-23 May, 2010 reflecting the strong determination of the United Nations, the Government of Turkey and the International Community to work with the Transitional Federal Institutions and the people of Somalia to defeat the cycle of lawlessness, violence and despair in the country and to build in its place a peaceful and prosperous future for the Somali people. The Conference reaffirmed the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia.
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The Somali Conflict: The Role of External Actors

Somalia has been without a functioning state ever since 1991, when the former dictator, Siyad Barre, was overthrown. None of the competing factions were strong enough to take his place as ruler of the country, producing first chaos, but gradually a form of stateless order. The international interventions have ever since the failed, and counter-productive intervention by the United Nations and the United States in the early 1990 exacerbated rather than mitigated the problems, let alone solved them. This was especially the case for the Ethiopia invasion (December 2006-January 2009), which produced utter chaos and a severe humanitarian crisis. Since the withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces, Islamist extremist militias have been establishing control of Somalia, and they may or may not be able to maintain this control. If they pursue their radical programme of Islamisation, their reign is likely to be short, but if
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