MRG and partners call on Somalia to tackle exclusion of minorities
Human Rights Council – 48th Session
Wednesday 6 October 2021
Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on Somalia
Speaker: Maimon Farah Samatar
I speak on behalf of a consortium of organisations[1], all of which are active in promoting achievement of minority rights, equality and non-discrimination in Somalia.
We particularly welcome the Independent Expert’s recognition of continuing discrimination against members of minority clans in Somalia.
We call on the authorities in Somalia, and all those who are supporting them, to redouble efforts to move ahead with elections on the basis of one person one vote noting that the current temporary allocation of political posts on the basis of the 4.5 power-sharing formula is widely considered to directly discriminate against minority clan communities. We support the Expert’s call for a quota for minority representatives to remedy their longstanding under-representation in Somalia’s political life.
We call on the Government of Somalia, the UN and all international and national organisations to recognise that minorities are still at high risk of being left behind and work with those affected to identify ways in which such exclusion continues, including in access to health, education, nutrition, work, housing, water, sanitation and hygiene and, in fact, to all aid and development programmes. Remedies for additional exclusion for minority clan members should be designed and implemented immediately.
Watch the statement
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[1] Daami Youth Development Organisation, Land, Relief, Development Organisation, Marginalized/Minority Community Advocacy Network, Minority Relief and Development Organisation, Puntland Minority Women’s Development Organisation, Voices of Somaliand Minority Women Organisation, Minority Rights Group International.