STEERING COMMITTEE ON SOMALIAS NATIONAL ACTION

PLAN ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE MEETS

Mogadishu, 8 September, 2015 The Steering Committee on
Somalias National Action Plan on Sexual Violence in Conflict today
held a meeting chaired by the Minister for Women and Human
Rights Development and co-chaired and hosted by UNSOM in Villa
Nabad. The agenda focused on plans for implementation and
fostering coordination among the different arms of the Government.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), officials from
various ministries of the Federal Government of Somalia, members
of civil society, the Somali Police Force and AMISOM.
Sahra Mohamed Ali Samatar, Somali Federal Government Minister
for Women and Human Rights Development emphasized the need to
create awareness on sexual violence, tackling the widespread
stigma and ensuring that functional policies and systems are in
place.
We know that over the last 25 years of civil war, all the institutions
of government were affected. The first victims were women and
girls. We also know that as of today, we do not have strong policies
or strong institutions that protect women and children. Because of
that, it is a priority and we must urge all Somalis to build and to
have strong policies to end sexual violence. For me, as Minister for
Gender and a mother, it is a priority to ensure protection for all
women in Somalia, said the Minister.
Ghada Shawgi, Senior Women Protection Advisor with UNSOM
reiterated continued support towards this plan, including
coordination of various partners to ensure a well-coordinated effort
towards addressing sexual violence in Somalia.
This plan is really very important in terms of providing protection
and support for not only women but also men, boys and girls. The
National Action Plan was developed and agreed on last year in May
2014, where the Somali government organs and the civil society and
all the actors including the Police and the security forces came to
put their minds together to come up with priority actions to address
the issues of protection for women. Since then, we have been
supporting the government to implement the National Action Plan,
she said

The meeting also brought on board views from civil society, which is
being engaged to aid the awareness process at the grass root level,
among other functions.
Sahra Mohamed Ahmed, a legal advisor with Somali Woman
Development Center (SWDC), observed that matters of protection of
women and children are critical; commending the collective effort
towards ensuring their safety.
We are very happy to meet with the Minister of Women and Human
Rights and the main issue of the discussion is violence against
women and children. We are at our last leg of consultations towards
enacting legislation to address this issue. We are discussing the
policies that assist when women are abused, said Sahra Ahmed
Lieutenant Idil Abdullahi Hassan, who represented the Head of
Gender in the Somali Police Force said the meeting aimed to
enhance coordination between the various arms of the government
for collective efforts towards protection of women and children. She
noted the need for strong coordination, from the point when a case
is reported to the Police to when it is taken before the courts of law,
to ensure justice for the victims.
Since the National Action Plan was already being developed,
todays gathering is all about how to implement it. We are all
discussing across sectors and stakeholders the implementation, and
the outcome of this meeting at the end of the day should be how we
can implement and coordinate, she added.
Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the Director General in the Ministry of
Health added that the meeting attended by the various government
ministries is a key step towards implementation of this plan. He
noted that this is a very crucial and political commitment meeting
with more than nine ministries, civil society and other stakeholders
attending. The main issue is for the government to hold consultative
discussions to stop the violence related to sexual issues. With the
government, as you can see, solutions in highlighting the matter will
be brought to the highest level of decision makers and new laws will
be enacted to stop sexual based violence in Somalia, particularly
violence against women and children.
ENDS.