Somalia: Puntland Human Rights Defender Report

We present here the first annual report issued by the OPHRD which coincides with the commemoration of its first anniversary. During our first

year, we concentrated on setting up this office in all Puntland's regions and to outreach to different communities to explain what the OPHRD's objective and the services we offer. To that end, we held a substantial number of meetings with civil society groups, elders, women, and youth and government officials to highlight the importance of this office and its role in reducing human rights violations in Puntland.

Furthermore we visited government institutions including courts, correction prisons, and police stations in Garowe, Bosaso, Galkaio and Qardho towns to monitor violations. These visits were also used as an opportunity to raise awareness about obligations.. In addition we held discussions with registered Puntland CSGs such as PUNSAA, Para legal centers, the PHU Association, psychiatric centers, College and Universities. IDP camps and Yemen returnee's sites in Bosaso were also included in our monitoring and outreach.

We also sought to strengthen partnerships and ties of relationship and collaboration with local and international agencies working in the areas of human rights in Puntland in the purpose of putting more synergy into the action to support our mandate.

In our first year, we received 49 complaints of human rights violations and succeeded in resolving at least half. The remaining complaints are being handled by the courts and other concerned agencies after we reviewed and referred. In addition, we provided legal consultation services to a number of people who were having complaints which are not related to human rights.

Finally this report is to serve as institutional memory, setting benchmarks against which we will measure progress in the protection and promotion of human rights in Puntland.

1.2 Establishment of the Office

This office was created in accordance with articles 116, 117 of the Puntland Constitution and article 6 of the Human Rights Defender's Act. The procedure followed to nominate and select candidates for the position of Defender and his/her subsequent election is set out in article 117 of the Puntland Constitution and article 6 of the Human Rights Defender's Act. The Ministry of Justice, Rehabilitation and Religious Affairs was the mandated ministry to manage the process. On July 2014, the Council of Ministers discussed the candidates and short listed four from the list provided by the Ministry. On November 4, HE Abdiwali Mohamed Ali, the President of Puntland issued letter number MW/DPS/815/2014 requesting the House of Representative to elect one of the three candidates tabled by the House.

READ FULL REPORT: OPHRD ANNUAL REPORT IN ENGLISH VERSION.pdf