Calling For International Solidarity For HRDs at Risk

Targeted, witch hunted, harassed, arrested, tortured, persecuted and killed, human rights defenders working in the war ravaged nation (Somalia) are brave some in the most exceptional situations.

The term human rights defender refers individuals or groups who act to promote, protect or strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means.

The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 53/144, is based on and incorporates human rights enshrined in legally-binding international instruments.

In Somalia, human rights defenders HRDs have been the target of executions, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, harassment and defamation, as well as restrictions on their freedoms of movement, expression, association and assembly. They are targeted by all sides to the conflict.

Apart from this, they face other serious challenges e.g., when they apply for asylum in safe countries that don't recognize the work of HRDs and don't have protection programs for HRDs at risk; often reject their asylum cases, which puts their lives and mental health at stake, due to the fact that, the asylum protection is their last resort of survival. The consequences of the rejection are:

1. HRDs will be deported back to Somalia regardless of the torture, death, disappearance, persecution and inhuman treatment (Physical threat)
2. HRDs will be kept in asylum homes without rights to work, travel or integrate with the society which is a total isolation which causes a lot of trauma to the HRDs at risk (Mental health at stake)

This is the story of two HRDs (Abbreviated names; Sh. A., & I. A.) who left Somalia amid increased death threats against them in late September 2021. They escaped and reached Iceland and claimed asylum which was later rejected and now they are left alone to face the aforementioned risks and above all She is suffering from inflammation in her left lobe of the thyroid gland, after having surgical operation in the hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland.

They have been waiting patiently for their asylum process for fifteen months, and they were eventually shocked, after learning that their asylum case was turned down. Now they are left the mercy of what the appeal board decides on their case.

Between a rock and hard place, means they can't go back home and they can't stay without any meaningful rights to remain and get protection. We as pan African HRDs, call for the international solidarity in order to protect them; we specially call for the UN special rapporteur (Ms. Mary Lawlor) on the situation of human rights defenders to offer her solidarity.

By -

• Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum HoACSF https://hoacsf.org
• Coalition of Somali HRDs CSHRDs www.cshrds.org
• Pan Africa Defenders https://africandefenders.org
• Horn Afrik News Agency for Human Rights HANAHR www.hanahr.net
• Open Briefing https://www.openbriefing.org