Mogadishu | QOL | 27 July 2017—The United Nations mission in Somalia has kicked off a series of consultative meetings across Somalia to seek views on the traditional justice system and how it hinders women’s access to justice.
The UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) said in a statement on Wednesday that the meetings which started in the southern Somalia brought together local women leaders, government officials and civil society representatives focusing on the challenges women face in accessing justice and also addressed proposals for reforms.
“The idea was to give women space to express how they feel about the traditional justice system and whether it protects women’s rights or not,” said Virginie Blanchard, a Judicial Affairs Officer from the UNSOM Rule of Law and Security Institutions Group (ROLSIG) which convened the meetings.
“They identified practices that they don’t want to accept any more. Like, for example, the fact that in the traditional justice system, a young girl will be given as compensation to another clan in case of murder,” Blanchard added.
The UN official said the two meetings held in Baidoa and Kismayo identified concrete steps that women can take to achieve better representation within the country’s formal and traditional judicial systems.
Speaking at the forum in Kismayo, Abshira Qamis Ismail, the Chairperson of the Kismaayo Women’s Cooperation organization, attributed the obstacles facing women to a lack of female representation in the formal and traditional justice sectors. She added that these challenges had been compounded by ignorance about the law.
“We don’t have women to whom we can report our cases. We don’t have female elders to whom we can tell our private issues. We don’t have women to address the problems we face,” Abshira said.
Farhiya Ahmed Abdi, an officer of the Somali Police Force told a forum in Baidoa that traditional elders prefer to resolve cases regarding the abuse of women outside the formal courts – where cases are adjudicated more quickly – and within the traditional justice system instead, where most male perpetrators go unpunished.
“Every day we receive cases of women who are physically abused and tortured by their husbands. The challenge we face is that whenever we arrest the man and present the cases to courts for prosecution, traditional elders go to the courts and interfere with the cases,” Abdi said.
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Source: Xinhua
Xafiiska Wararka | Qaranimo Online | Muqdisho
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Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia
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