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Since the collapse of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991, a highly chaotic armed conflict has plagued Somalia. The civilian population currently lives in a state of humanitarian crisis. Over a million people are internally displaced and even more have had to resettle abroad. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that up to three million Somali nationals are living abroad. Because of the ongoing conflict, Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost half of the Somali population lives on less than US $1 per day.
Women suffer extremely high rates of gender-based violence, including rape, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Due to the absence or weakness of state institutions, victims of gender-based violence cannot rely on effective support and have almost no legal recourse. The cultural stigmatization of rape also prevents many women from reporting it to either the formal judiciary structures or the traditional justice mechanisms. To learn more about women’s security situation in Somalia, please see our factsheet “Escaping Violence: The Security Situation on Somali Women and Girls.”
Within this context, Somali women have mobilized to actively engage in ongoing conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes and activities. Women have often assumed responsibility for meeting the basic needs of society, such as health care and education, and have contributed to the economy through trade activities. The women of the Somali Diaspora in various countries have played a crucial role in terms of input and support for women’s participation in the peace process. While this has been acknowledged by a number of international observers, much still needs to be done to encourage and support women’s participation as voters and as candidates in the country’s political elections.
Project Background
In 2008, UN-INSTRAW in collaboration with the Italian-based Associazione Diaspora e Pace (ADEP)
and with the financial support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs implemented the project, Gender and Peace in Somalia: Implementation of Resolution 1325. Please see the Project Profile for more information.
The Somalia project had the following objectives:
- To support the full and sustainable implementation of Resolution 1325 in Somalia
- To create an enabling environment for women’s equal participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and political processes
- To foster ongoing collaboration between women’s groups in Somalia and Somali women’s groups from the Diaspora living in Italy
The culmination of the Somalia project was the International Conference on Women, Peace and Security in Somalia which was held from 2 to 6 September 2008 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The conference was co-organized by UN-INSTRAW and ADEP and brought together representatives of Somali women’s organizations, representatives of the Somali Diaspora in Italy and other stakeholders. The conference aimed to:
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Establish an open and continuous dialogue among Somali women both from Somalia and the Diaspora
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Support the creation of an enabling environment for
women’s equal participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and
political process in Somalia and among the Somali Diaspora
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Outline a roadmap for the development of a National
Action Plan for the implementation of Resolution 1325 in Somalia, and
define strategies and mechanisms for its participatory negotiation and
implementation.
For more information, please see the Conference background paper, concept note (in English and Italian), powerpoint, and agenda.
As preparation for the International Conference, UN-INSTRAW and ADEP co-organized two seminars with women of the Somali Diaspora in Milan (northern Italy) and Bari (southern Italy) in February and May 2008 respectively. These seminars aimed to bring women together in order to share information about Resolution 1325 and its applicability to Somalia, to discuss how to support women’s participation in the ongoing conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes and to identify initial recommendations for the International Conference. For more information on the Seminars, please download the Final Report.
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