This is where you can follow the important socio-economic, geopolitical and security developments, going inside the Republic of Somaliland and Horn of Africa region
Bob Carr, the
Australian senator and foreign minister
Australia’s foreign
minister has said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is safer in the Swedish
capital than London, despite his efforts to avoid extradition.
The 41-year-old Australian
has been granted refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital since June
while fighting extradition to Sweden amid sexual assault accusations. Assange
and his supporters claim he has done nothing wrong and that the charges are
part of a plot to send him to Washington to face charges for the release of
classified cables via his whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
Now, Bob Carr, the
Australian senator and foreign minister, has said that the belief that
Washington is looking to extradite the controversial figure is “ludicrous” and
that Assange is actually safer in Stockholm than in Britain.
The comments came during
an interview with Australia’s ABC news agency, in which he said, “There is the
sense that the United States are pursuing Julian Assange. Julian Assange was in
London living freely for two years. If the United States had wanted to
extradite him they could have done so.”
“The Swedes have won in
the UK courts. It’s nothing to do with WikiLeaks. It’s about a criminal
allegation made in Sweden and that’s why he’s in the Ecuadorian Embassy,” he
said.
Carr went on to add, “If
the Swedes had him in Stockholm he’d been even more…harder for the US to
extradite, if that’s what they wanted to do then he’s been for the last two
years in the United Kingdom.”
Mr Carr’s comments come
despite Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patiño saying last year that
Assange was given asylum because there was “strong evidence” that he is likely
to face retaliation from the US and other countries that had produced the
classified information released on WikiLeaks.
Reporting
directly the Executive Director of USWO NGO supported by the other key staff
including the administration, finance and field Technical leaders, the staff
member will undertake to support the following activities:
VACANCY
ANNOUNCEMENT NO :
USWO/02/2013
ISSUED
ON:
11 March 2013
DEADLINE
FOR APPLICATION:
25th March2013
POSITION
TITLE:
Project Officer of the Strengthening Community Based
Responses for Improving Care and Protection of Vulnerable Children in
Somaliland (SCORE Project).
DURATION:
6 months with possible extension
ELIGIBLE
CANDIDATES:
SOMALILAND NATIONALS ONLY
ANTICIPATED
START DATE:
Immediately
Background:
USWO is non-governmental, nonprofit minority right
based NGOs, an initiative of a group of Somaliland outcast minorities students
in 2003. It was formally registered in 2004 as a non-government organization.
It is among the first national NGOs to exclusively champion the human rights,
environmental justice and socio-economic empowerment of Somaliland outcast
minority groups – the most vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalized social
group in Somaliland.
In partnership
with Save
the Children and in collaboration with the Ministry of Rehabilitation
Relief and Reconstruction (MRRR) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
(MOLSA), Ubax Social Selfare Organization (USWO) is implementing the SCORE
project in the IDP Camps of Daami in Hargeisa city.
The overall purpose of the project is to contribute to the protection rights of
vulnerable children who have fled their families or communities into Somaliland
and ensuring their rights are respected, promoted and fulfilled.
Targeting to reach a total of 2,700 IDP/street children through different
interventions including direct services provision for the severely abused
children, the project will specifically focus on the following outcomes/
objectives:
a) Strengthened capacity of child
protection systems and structures to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect,
exploitation and violence against internally displaced children and children
living and working on the streets of Hargeysa town by December 2013.
b) 2,000 IDP and other vulnerable [Other vulnerable children will include
street children, children in conflict with the law and minority clan children
being discriminated in this project context.] children who have fled their families
and live in IDP Camps and the streets of Hargeisa have access to community based
care and protection services in a supportive and child empowering environment
by December 2013.
One of the key outputs of this project is ensuring an institutional framework
that is responsive to the protection rights of children is in place. This is
meant to be achieved through supporting the government of Somaliland through
MOLSA to develop national guidelines on institutional care for children without
appropriate care.
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
§Lead, ensure,
organize, plan, supervise and control the implementation of project day-to-day
child protection activities at all levels;
§Draw approaches,
establish, reform and strengthen community based child protection structures
(CRCCs) at community/village levels;
§Initiate ,
establish, promote and support problem solving, conflict management and
self-help initiates child-to-child and youth-to-youth groups;
§Provide workshops
on youth conflict resolutions and management with community elders and youth
groups;
§Conduct community
sensitization, mobilization and awareness on child rights and promotion of
community approaches to protection through workshops, sensitization meeting and
organizing CRC and CRP committees to raise the issue of child protection.
§Lead the project
staff to support the establishment of parent support groups to improve
community based reception and rehabilitation of VC/children at risk;
§Plan, organize
and conduct structured training sessions for PSSGs for selected parents on care
and protection of children and parenting skills;
§Promote and support
the reintegration of children in their communities, including child conflict
with the law;
§Facilitate and
provide direct support to abused children to access needed services through
provision of legal, medical and psychosocial counseling support to victims and,
or referral or other means;
§Ensure timely
delivery of a quality project outputs to be produced within the project period;
§Submit monthly, or quarterly and annual
narrative reports to USWO executive director, project donors and partners
timely before deadlines;
Expertise
Required
The
following attributes are required for the selection of the suitable consultant:
Competencies
Proven
analytical, organizational development and inter-personal skills;
Strong
conceptual and analytical skills;
Excellent
oral, and effective presentation and report-writing skills;
Excellent
computers skills required;
Ability to
meet deadlines with minimum supervision;
Proficiency
in English and Somali, written and spoken.
Required
Skills and Experience
Education:
Post
graduate qualifications in the following fields: Public Administration,
Development Studies or another related discipline relevant to the
assignment.
Postgraduate
qualifications in social sciences or another discipline relevant to this
assignment with a minimum of 5 years work experience.
Experience:
At least
five years of relevant professional experience including at least three
years’ experience in human rights, child rights work;
Substantial
knowledge and understanding of internal displacement issues in the region ;
Sound
knowledge of local and international legal instruments governing the
protection and promotion of children’s rights,
Understanding
of key working approaches and principles in Child Protection (Child Rights
Programming and Child Participation frameworks)
Knowledge of
Somali culture and the social political dimensions of CP
Evidence of
quality previous work with Somaliland LNGOs and/or INGOs working with
Children;
Excellent
documentation skills including analytical and report writing skills
Experience
of working with Government
Interested
and eligible applicants can send copies of their updated CVs, and motivated
latter to: uswo.ed@gmail.com
Somalia has a high prevalence rate of female genital
mutilation/cutting. UNICEF and partners are pushing to effect genuine change
towards abandoning the practice ““ for once, and for all.
BOORAMA, northwest Somalia, 27 February 2013 “
Ten-year-old Kheiriya has a secret. The secret is that, unlike most girls her
age in Boorama, she has not been circumcised. The soft-spoken girl is scared to
let others know.
UNICEF correspondent Susannah Price reports on a campaign
to end female genital mutilation/cutting in Somalia.
Watch in RealPlayer
“I have to hide it from my friends and teachers. I cannot
tell them I am not cut, because they would say: you are haram [impure], and no
man would marry you,” she says.
High rate of FGM/C
Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is the cutting,
partial or total removal, of the external female genitalia for cultural,
religious or other non-medical reasons. It is usually performed on girls
between the ages of 4 and 10 and is also known as female circumcision.
Somalia has one of the highest prevalence rates of female
circumcision in the world. In a recent survey, at least 98 per cent of women
said they had undergone the process, which is performed by traditional
practitioners using a knife or razor blade on girls aged between 4 and 8.
Work to end FGM/C
Since 1996, UNICEF has approached FGM/C in Somalia from
religious, medical, community and cultural perspectives. UNICEF has worked with
religious leaders to help dispel the widespread misconception that it is an
Islamic expectation and duty.
“Shying away from admitting there has been a serious
problem in Somalia and a harmful practice in place for hundreds of years will
only make the problem worse,” says
prominent Imam and State Religious Affairs Councillor in northwest Somalia
Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim.
Girls and women are subjected to health risks which have
life-threatening consequences based on false beliefs that have nothing whatever
to do with religious or medical teachings.”
A survey conducted in Somalia reported near universal
practice of FGM/C. UNICEF and partners are pushing to effect genuine change
towards abandoning the practice ““ for once, and for all.
Under the UNFPA “UNICEF Joint Programme, child protection
committees and advocates have engaged over 300,000 community members and
stakeholders in meetings on FGM/C abandonment in Puntland and Somaliland. The
Joint Programme has also provided technical assistance to line ministries, and
has brought together authorities, religious leaders, youth, educators, women
and men to discuss and reach consensus on ending FGM/C. Events commemorating
the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM/C, 6 February, reached over
30,000 community members with public debates, community dramas and other
activities.
Genuine change
“Personally, I don’t want my daughters to experience the
same trauma and fear I had to go through in my childhood,” says Nimo, mother of 2-year-old and 8-month-old girls. “I want to abandon circumcision, but only when the entire
community does so; I don’t want to be the only one going against the social
norms.”
“A genuine change in the beliefs and practices around
FGM/C in Somalia can only be achieved through persistent dialogue at the
community level and the translation of the insights from dialogue into
practice,” says UNICEF Somalia Chief of
Child Protection Programme Sheema Sen Gupta. “We
need to focus on young girls and, specifically, assisting those responsible for
them to make a deliberate stand against the practice.”
There have also been important changes on the policy
level on abandoning FGM/C in Somalia. In 2012, the new Somali Constitution
outlawed all forms of FGM/C. In line with the Constitution, a draft decree
outlawing all forms of FGM/C is awaiting consensus from religious leaders
before presentation to the Cabinet for approval. To date, a policy on FGM/C
abandonment in northwest Somalia has been finalized, while work is ongoing to
finalize policy in the northeast region.
The UPDF has succeeded in defeating Al-shabaab terrorists in Somalia largely because of the ability of the Ugandan troops to win the hearts of the Somali civilian population, former UPDF contingent commander Brig. Paul Lokech has said.
Brig. Lokech who is currently Uganda’s military attaché in Russia, was on Tuesday giving an insight during the marking of six years since the UPDF was deployed in Somalia in March 2007 under AMISOM.
The event which was organised by the AU/UN Information Support Team and the Centre for African Security, International and Strategic Studies (CASISS), was held at Serena Conference Centre.
Uganda has over 6,000 troops serving under AMISOM alongside other troops and Police officers from Burundi, Kenya, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The event was meant to highlight the role played by AMISOM in supporting the people of Somalia to restore peace and stability in their country, focusing on the contribution of the UPDF.
“What helped us in Mogadishu was having Somalis on our side, with civil-military relations to win the hearts and minds of the Somali people,” Brig. Lokech said.
The event also launched the “Heroes in the Horn,” a 40-minute documentary film that highlights UPDF’s contributions in Somalia. Present were American army officers from the Air War College in Alabama USA.
Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, Uganda’s deputy ambassador of Somalia and former AMISOM force commander said, “We pay tribute to the Commander in chief President Museveni, for having taken a bold decision.”
Mugisha also paid tribute to the UPDF soldiers who were part of the initiative under AMISOM, but lost their lives during the liberation of Somalia from Al-shabaab.
“Uganda and Burundi have taken the bulk of casualties because they moved in when it was dangerous. But the leadership deserves to be recognised for taking the bold steps,” Maj. Gen. Mugisha said.
The First Secretary of the Somali Embassy in Uganda said hope is restored in Somalia because of the tireless contribution and efforts of Uganda.
