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Somaliland Human Rights Law:

 The Somaliland Bill of Rights (Annotated text of the Somaliland Constitutional provisions relating to the fundamental rights & Freedoms) - Coming shortly.

Somaliland National Human Rights Commission Law (Law No. 39/2010) -  On 26 December 2010, the President signed the Somaliland Human Rights Commission Law (Decree No. Law No. 0100/2010). The law came into force on that date.

(An old version of the law is kept here for reference purposes only - 2008 Version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives  on 26/04/2008. )

The members of the Commission were selected by a Committee set up under 10 of the Law and consisting of 3 members appointed by the President, 2 by the House of Elders and 2 Supreme Court Justices.  Following the procedure under Article 10 of the Law, the Committee organised an open competition and selected in order of merit,  14 persons who were suitable for appointment as Commissioners.  The President then appointed the 7 Commissioners from the list and the remaining selectees were held in reserve in order of their merit as assessed by the Committee. On 3 April 2011, the President announced the 7 appointees in a Presidential Decree (No. 0123/2011) and on  27 June 2011, the House of Representatives approved the appointments on a vote of 49 for and none against or, other than the Presiding Officer, abstaining.

For more information about the Commission see their Website.  Here is the Commission  Three year strategy .

• Guidebook on Women’s Political Rights in Somaliland (in English & Somali) - NAGAAD Umbrella Organisation 2007 (www.nagaad.org).
• Somaliland Human Rights Defenders’ Declaration 2003

• No Redress: Somalila’s Forgotten Minorities October 2010 - Minority Rights Group’s report on the plight of Somali minorities in Somalia and Somaliland.

“…Awareness and action for minority rights have advanced further and faster in Somaliland (particularly in the last few years) … [and the country] has been characterized by peace, democratic development including multi-party elections, and civil society activism.”  

“…  The Somaliland Constitution of May 2001 in article  8.1 states that ‘all citizens of Somaliland shall enjoy equal rights and obligations before the law, and shall not be accorded precedence on grounds of colour, clan, birth, language, gender, property, status, opinion, etc’. Under article 8.2, ‘precedence and discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, clan affiliation, birth and residence is prohibited; and at the same time, programmes aimed at eradicating long lasting bad practices shall be a national obligation.”

“… Progress, however, has been limited by government inaction, failures of the judicial system, limited action by the Somaliland National Human Rights Commission,  negative government attitudes towards human rights defenders and  and persistence of prejudicial social attitudes among members of the majority clans.”

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTIONS acceded to by the Somali Republic between 1960 to 1991 -

• List of main Human Rights treaties and ratification of some by the Somali (Democratic) Republic.

The Republic of Somaliland is bound by these human rights  treaties acceded to or ratified by the Somali Republic and has formally confirmed its compliance with them in its own Constitution (see, for example, Articles 10(1), 10(2) and 21(2)). The Republic has also confirmed that it shall implement in Somaliland other human rights treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Core Human Rights Treaties in ENGLISH  and ARABIC.
• New Core Human Rights Treaties in ENGLISH and ARABIC

HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS Translated into Somali:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 - Somali
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination - Somali
• Convention on the Rights of the Child - Somali
• Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - Somali