Somalia: Rights Priorities for New Government

analysis

Nairobi — Somalia's new government should ensure that the security forces are accountable and improve protection of the most vulnerable people, Human Rights Watch said today in a 10-point report on human rights priorities. The London conference on security sector reform in Somalia, slated for May 11, 2017, is an important opportunity for Somalia's leadership and the country's international partners to make a commitment to address past abuses and improve future responses to the many problems arising from war, famine, and political dysfunction.

On February 8, Somalia's two houses of parliament selected former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmajo" as the country's president following a protracted electoral process. The new government, with support from its international partners, should take concrete steps to remove abusers from the security forces, put a stop to abuses against the country's over 1.1 million internally displaced people, keep children out of the armed forces, step-up fair prosecutions for sexual violence, and improve media freedoms.

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