Category: Human Rights

Kenya: What crimes against the innocent are perpetrated in your name?

As Somalophobia is allowed to take hold and in certain quarters is actively encouraged it is regrettable that nations that are the usual cheer leaders of human rights have manifestly failed to condemn the human wrongs taking place in Nairobi and elsewhere. Political expediency and a multiplicity of base motives have ensured a silence that is near deafening. Incarcerations, beatings and the carting off of innocent citizens including women and children to Kasarani stadium have nothing to do with a so-called war on terror. The shameful treatment of Somalis & Somali Kenyans continues at Shauri Molo and Pangani Police Stations, Nairobi where large numbers of women and children are being held in degrading and insanitary conditions for the sole purpose of extorting money.

Somalia: Unfair Trials in Military Courts

Somalia’s military courts since 2011 have tried hundreds of people beyond the courts’ legal mandate or in proceedings that fall short of international fair trial standards…The government should urgently transfer civilian cases to the regular courts. International donors assisting in desperately needed improvements in Somalia’s justice system should not neglect reform of the military courts.

What can African leaders learn from Brazil?

According to the Centre of Economic and Business Research, Brazil made a historical leap in this year’s annual global economic league tables because of its vast reserves of natural resources and its growing cash rich middle class who are spending as Europeans and Americans tighten their belts as a result of the global financial crisis. There is much for African leaders to learn from a country that was once just like theirs in every imaginable way.

What does the European Court of Human Rights Judgement mean for the Somali people?

The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that allowed two prolific serious Somali criminals to remain in the UK for fear of the breach of their Article 3 rights if sent back to war torn Mogadishu was predictable. This overturned the British Asylum and Immigration Tribunals decision that although a return to Mogadishu would and could expose deportees to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment as well as persecution, those with connections to the powerful people in Mogadishu might be able to live there safely. Despite the tough on foreign criminal’s stance the British government has adopted, the reality is that their policies are always subject to a compatibility test with European Union law of which the European Convention on Human Rights 1998 is one of. It is so important that if any member States policies do not comply they can be expelled from the Union after a period of financial penalization.