24/10/2011 - Child rights activists are expressing concern over a law which they say is failing children and leaving them unprotected in Somaliland.
Officials in the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland say that there is an average of 200 children detained each month by police for minor offences and are not charged properly under the juvenile justice law.
Khadar Nour, a child protection activist in the Somaliland capital, these children "end up being detained with adults because there are no rehabilitation centres for children or prisons for children".
Somaliland passed a juvenile justice law in 2007 which puts the age of criminal liability at 15. It limits the maximum punishment for someone as young as 15 to 15 years, and prohibits corporal punishment, life imprisonment and the death penalty. The law also sets out guidelines for the protection of a child’s rights and a child’s participation during court proceedings.
However, many are saying that the new law has not been implemented properly due in part to a lack of resources and a lack of understanding the law by government officials. According to an assessment conducted in August by Somaliland's ministry of justice, just 5 percent of the average 200 children detained monthly are processed though the judicial system.
This means that for the most part children are often arrested and freed arbitrarily. Many of the total of the 104 children in prison were there for offences such as theft, possession of illicit drugs and rape.
The assessment also found that more than half of Somaliland's police stations did not apply the juvenile justice law.
Admen Aidid Hussein, the Minister for justice, stated that "This law... calls for the establishment of children's courts, children's pre-trial detention centres and children's rehabilitation centres."
He added that the law had been held up primarily by a lack of funds for implementation, and by the need for training of police officers, social workers and other staff required to implement it.
Traditionally, criminal cases against children in Somaliland are dealt with by clan elders, with the clan, and not the child, taking responsibility for the crime. The 2007 law aims to protect the rights of children in accordance with international human rights law in a way that harmonizes the provisions of secular, Sharia and customary laws relating to children in conflict with law.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child remains the most widely recognized and ratified international child rights document. Article 37 (d) of the convention states that “Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.”
http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/News/News/child-protection-news/child-rights-news/Pages/Children-Detained-Somaliland-Failed-Juvenile-Justice-Law-073.aspx
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