Half-hearted Advocacy for the Rights of Somali Children

[Deeq A.]

Dr. Guleid Jama was awarded a PhD in Law from Maastricht University.

Mogadishu (PP Comment) — Dr. Guleid Jama, the former Chair of the Human Rights Center in Hargeisa, has defended his dissertation at the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University. Entitled “Do our children have rights? Children’s rights in the unrecognised state of Somaliland,” the dissertation discussed important issues affecting the lives of children in a country recovering from a civil war, but still hobbled by fragility and is vulnerable to conflicts.

Guleid frames the discussion in theoretical perspectives to shed light on concepts he deems applicable to the Somaliland Administration. Guleid is overtly biased in his discussion of the political controversies in Northern Somalia regarding union and secession. He is biased towards secessionists. This choice affects not only the quality of his work but also his academic integrity. His bias becomes evident when he discusses the 2023 conflict in Las Anod. Guleid views the conflict as one between Somaliland and a clan militia: “In February 2023, a war erupted in Las Anod, the capital of Sool, where local clan militias took control from Somaliland.”

The Somaliland Administration forces shelled Las Anod for six months, causing death, destruction and displacement. The war affected children, disrupting their education and forcing them to flee to nearby districts such as Garowe, Galka’yo, and Buuhoodle. The Somaliland Administration claimed  to be a sovereign state fighting Al-Shabaab in Las Anod. When the UN Security Council called on the Somaliland administration to stop shelling Las Anod, the Somaliland Administration government insisted on a two-state solution as a condition to cease the shelling. The tension between these two claims to statehood merited discussion in the dissertation to avoid imposing a partisan definition of the term “unrecognised states.” Guleid defines “unrecognised states” thus: “In my view, the main characteristic of unrecognised States is their aspiration to full independence and de jure recognition combined with effective control over a territory and proof of maintained existence, to distinguish them from short-lived separatists, insurgents, and non-State territorial actors.”

In 2021, Somaliland Administration forcibly displaced more than 1,600 Somalis in Las Anod under the pretext that they were foreigners. More than 40% of the victims were internally displaced children. Somali children bore the brunt of the conflict. Guleid did not discuss Somaliland administration policies that violated the rights of children. Was that a deliberate choice or an oversight?

His bias turns into a factual error when Guleid argued that “Somaliland is not part of the Federal Government of Somalia and is an independent state” (page 6) but contradicts himself on page 7: “Somaliland is an integral part of Somalia and members selected from Somaliland include the parliament and the cabinet of Somalia.” Other contradictions crop up in the dissertation. Guleid writes: “On the one hand, Somaliland is not recognised as a sovereign state by any state” (page 50) but ascribed to Somaliland the characteristics of a recognised state: “Despite this territorial dispute, Somaliland has a defined territory with known frontiers” (page 29).

Guled mentions the territorial dispute between the Somaliland Administration and Puntland State of Somalia but does not make it clear that the 2001 unilateral referendum was not conducted in Harti clan’s territories under the jurisdiction of Puntland State Administration. There is a reason for this omission. Guled describes the 2001 unilateral referendum as “a national referendum”: “The state formation process of Somaliland has undergone various levels starting from the declaration of independence in 1991 and approval of a constitution through a national referendum in 2001” (page 32).”

A politico-legal dissertation on a country still grappling with the impact of a civil war and state collapse demands thorough research and fastidiousness to prevent factual errors and intentional bias from undercutting its potential contribution to knowledge on the rights of Somali children. Despite the flaws discussed above, Dr. Guleid deserves congratulations for defending his dissertation.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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