Mogadishu, November 2014 - The first ever comprehensive report about legal aid services for survivors of gender based violence (GBV) in Somalia is now in place; a ground-breaking product that will inform development of programmes and steps towards ending gender-based violence in the country.
Prepared by Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) and commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the report; “Legal Aid Providers Supporting Survivors of Gender Based Violence in Somalia”, identifies who is doing what, where and how in GBV interventions and provides an overview of the legal frameworks in place, key successes that can be replicated and recommendations on how immense challenges can be overcome.
The report provides key recommendations to improve access to justice for GBV survivors, increase security and protection for lawyers, witnesses and survivors and reduce impunity for perpetrators.
According to LAW, Somalia is a very difficult environment for providing legal aid services to survivors of GBV because of the security challenges that affect legal services across the country, but particularly in South Central Somalia, where survivors, lawyers, witnesses, journalists and family members have been threatened, harassed and arrested for reporting GBV offences. Legal aid providers regularly receive death threats towards their staff and offer rewards for the murder of their clients. Fear of reprisals to staff, survivors, witnesses and medical personnel rise if perpetrators are from the security forces and that it is therefore not surprising that survivors are hesitant to report cases of GBV.
Among other findings, this exceptional report indicates that the recognition by the Somali government, through pledges, action plans and communiques that GBV is a real problem which needs to be addressed has also had a good impact in the fight against GBV and that the achievements by legal aid providers are remarkable. The Somali government has stated that GBV is an ongoing problem and that some action must be taken to address it.
The report however recommends that there is more to be done if the system and practices are to be changed to provide legal redress, safety and security for survivors of GBV and that the successes need to be replicated and expanded across Somalia and lawyers must be empowered to take proactive action to instigate or advocate for transformation.
The international community is being asked in the report to provide long term and strategic support to develop legal aid providers’ capacity to push for systemic change and to support the establishment of transparent and fair government institutions to address GBV
offences.
“Now is the time to capitalise on the commitment and enthusiasm of the legal community to
address the impunity for perpetrators of GBV and to provide a system that promotes the best
interest of the survivor. We hope that we can all work together to achieve this change,” recommends Antonia Mulvey, the Executive Director of the Legal Action Worldwide
Please click here to access the full report http://legalactionworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/GBV-Legal-Aid-Report-final-29.10.pdf
For further information, please contact UNFPA Somalia Communication Specialist Pilirani Semu-Banda on e-mail address semu-banda@unfpa.org or telephone number: +254738777731
