Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements

Gender and peace in Somalia – Implementation of Resolution 1325
United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and Associazione Diaspora e Pace (ADEP), 2008
The Project “Gender and peace in Somalia – Implementation of Resolution 1325” is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by UN-INSTRAW and its Italo-Somali project partner Associazione Diaspora e Pace (ADEP). The Project aims to promote the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) by supporting the role of women in the Somali peace process and emphasising their role and their engagement for the survival of their communities during the conflict in Somalia.

To read the project outline, please click HERE

Gender and Involvement of Women in Local Governance
UN Habitat, 2006
This manual was translated and adapted to Somali language and culture during the Good Governance and Leadership Training Programme (GLTP). Principles and practices of gender balance for local governance are explained and brief exercises at the end of every chapter strengthen the learning.

To purchase the full manual, please click HERE

The Role of Somali Women in Peace-building
Coalition for Women's Grassroots Organizations (COWGO), Oxfam-Netherlands, Somalia (Novib), 28 May 2003

Internally Displaced Women and Girls Lack Protection in Somalia
The Global IDP Project of the Norwegian Refugee Council, 2003

Welcome Home to Nothing: Refugees Repatriate to a Forgotten Somaliland
Joel Frushone, Africa policy analyst, US Committee for Refugees, December 2001

Statement to the UN Security Council on Somali Women and Peacebuilding
Faiza Jama Mohamed, Equality Now, 2000

Gender, conflict and development: Volume II: Case studies: Cambodia; Rwanda; Kosovo; Algeria; Somalia; Guatemala and Eritrea
Bridget Byrne, Rachel Marcus and Tanya Powers-Stevens, BRIDGE, Report, No 35, December 1995 (revised July 1996)
Gender relations in pre-conflict Somalia were characterised by patriarchal, patrilineal, exogenous social systems only. Men were permitted to establish autonomous productive and reproductive units (households) and women rarely constituted legal persons in their own right. Somalia is a predominantly Muslim country, Islam having been absorbed from coastal Persian and Arab immigrants and traders in the 13th century. Islam was a dominant force in pre-conflict Somalia and interpretations of it were specific to Somali cultural society rather than any import of 'fundamentalist' interpretations. However, there were major differentials between governmental legislation and customary practice which governed women's lives and gender relations. Changes in gender relations in Somalia as a result of the conflict are outlined in the following dimensions: political, legal and human rights; demography and health; economic; social welfare and organisation; socio-cultural and ideological; and psychological. This report was prepared at the request of the Netherlandsí Special Programme on WID, Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a conference on gender, conflict and development of the Vrouwenberaad Ontwikkelingssamenwerking.

Seeking Refuge, Finding Terror: The Widespread Rape of Somali Women Refugees in North Eastern Kenya
Human Rights Watch, 1 October 1993
While the tragedy in Somalia made daily news, the plight of thousands of refugees in neighboring Kenya remains unpublicized. Since 1992, approximately 300,000 Somalis have fled across the 800 mile Kenya-Somali border, most of them women and children. Many were the victims of violence, including rape, as they fled war-torn Somalia. They came to Kenya to escape these dangers only to face similar abuse while enroute to or living in the refugee camps. order this report

UN Documents

The United Nations in Somalia
UN Country Team, website, 2004

United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS)
Since 15 April 1995; Current authorization: until 31 December 2004
Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNPOS: Winston A. Tubman (Liberia)
Strength: international civilian 5; local civilian 3

Situation of Human Rights in Somalia
Ghanim Alnajjar, independent expert, UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/2004/103, 30 November 2003

Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation in Somalia   *1325
Secretary-General to the Security Council, S/2003/636, 10 June 2003

Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation in Somalia
Secretary-General to the Security Council, S/2002/1201, 25 October 2002
Significant progress was made towards ensuring the participation of women in peace-building, despite the many challenges, which include the absence of gender-desegregated data, the exclusion of women from decision-making processes in Somalia, and the attitudes of some local leaders. Deeply rooted gender discrimination in the traditional sociocultural structures of Somali society, together with frequent misinterpretations of religion remains a considerable barrier to women’s empowerment.

Somalia: Women in Public Life
UN Development Programme (UNDP), Program on Governance in the Arab Region
Women’s groups have played an increased role in the efforts to achieve peace and rebuild Somalia. In 2000, all of the Somali clans met in Djibouti and devised a transition government. Women hold 25 seats in the 245-member Transitional National Assembly. Seats in the Assembly were distributed to provide parity between competing clans. Each of the four major clans is represented by five women, while the five remaining women are from minor clans.

African Women and Gender Website
African Centre for Gender and Development, UN Economic Commission for Africa

UN Political Office for Somalia
Department of Public Information (UN DPI), Peace and Security Section, November 2000


Government Statements and Reports

Declaration of the 4th Regular Meeting of IGAD Ministers in charge of Gender/Women Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), February 21-22, 2006

Proceedings of the 3rd Regular Meeting of Ministers in Charge of Gender Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 15, 2004
The specific objectives of the meeting were: to develop an IGAD Gender Policy framework with the view to facilitate the mainstreaming of Gender perspectives into all activities of IGAD in order to make them gender responsive and contribute to the achievement of economic integration, food security and environment protection, peace and Security and Humanitarian affairs in the region; to review a draft modalities of creating and IGAD women for Peace and Development Forum and to discuss the process and needs for improved Gender Budgeting in the region.

Summary Proceedings of the Workshop on engendering CEWARN (Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism)
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), November 25 – 26, 2002
This workshop was organized with the following objectives focusing gender issues within the framework of CEWARN:
• Broaden participants knowledge on engendering CEWARN as well as perception of the participants and deepening the analysis of the concept and recommend innovative ideas on engendering CEWARN
• Provide a forum for floating and testing ideas, which can later be formulated to logical framework and integrated to the CEWARN activities
• Assure presentation of Women in CEWARN and CEWERUs (In-state Conflict Early Warning and Conflict Management Unit)
• Develop Institutional Link between Gender Desk, CEWARN/CEWERUs and national machineries

Report of the 2nd Regular Meeting of Ministers in Charge of Women’s Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 4-5, 2002
The objectives of the meeting included reporting on the progress made since the First Regular Meeting of Ministers in charge of Gender and presenting a training program on Advanced Negotiation & Mediation Training for Women in Peace Making, Leadership & Development.

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and on the Rights of Women in Africa Disponsible en français [pdf]
Meeting of Government Experts, Addis Ababa, Etiopia, 16 November 2001

Seminar on Gender Mainstreaming of IGAD Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Programme
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), October 15-16, 2001
The objectives of the Seminar were:
- To share experiences and enhance the participants capacity and women’s involvement in peace making and peace building.
- To review the current peace initiatives of IGAD in relation to the involvement of women.
- To review the IGAD Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution and Humanitarian Affairs programmes and identify gender gaps.
- To map out a strategic action plan for onward submission to the First Regular Meeting of the IGAD Ministers In-charge of Women’s Affairs.

Gender Mainstreaming Summary Report
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 3-4, 2000

Books, Journals and Articles

Somalia--The Untold Story: The War Through the Eyes of Somali Women
Judith Gardner and Judy El-Bushra. (Eds.). Pluto Press (UK), March 2004
Somalia came to the world's attention in 1992 when television and newspapers began to report on the terrifyingly violent war and the famine that resulted. Half a million Somalis died that year, and over a million fled the country. Cameras followed US troops as they landed on the beaches at Mogadishu to lead what became an ill-fated UN intervention to end hunger and restore peace.In this book, Somali women write and talk about the war, their experiences and the unacceptable choices they often faced. They explain clearly, in their own words, the changes, challenges" and sometimes the opportunities" that war brought, and how they coped with them. Key themes include the slaughter and loss of men, who were the prime target for killings; rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war; changing roles in the family and within the pastoralist economy; women mobilising for peace; and leading social recovery in a war-torn society. This book is not only an important record of women's experience of war, but also provides researchers and students of gender and conflict with rare first hand accounts highlighting the impact of war on gender relations, and women's struggle for equal political rights in a situation of state collapse. order this book

Living in Limbo: A Profile of Djibouti’s Somali Refugee Women
Laura M. Bisaillon, M.U.P. UN Volunteer working as a UNHCR Community Services Officer in Djibouti, ACCORD, Conflict Trends, 2004/1

Veiled Majority: Life for in Women in Djibouti's Refugee Camps
Laura M. Bisaillon, M.U.P. UN Volunteer working as a UNHCR Community Services Officer in Djibouti, January 2004

Gender Training for Women’s Networks
Oxfam-Netherlands, Somalia (Novib), Karti Newsletter, No. 4, November 2003

Where are the Women?
Sarah Austin, The Nation Magazine, 31 December 2001
When clansmen in Somalia shut women out of the peace process there, the women formed a new clan--the Sister Clan. "No nation is more divisive than Somalia," she told the Afghan delegates. "But we found out that in conflict, we were sisters. We don't expect you to embrace each other, but just to see beyond your differences. What you have in common is the misery."

The UN Security Council Addresses Women’s Role in Peace
Maha Muna and Rachel Watson. Forced Migration Review. The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Queen Elizabeth House, the University of Oxford's Centre for Development Studies: Edition 11, October 2001

Somalia and Operation Restore Hope: Reflections on Peacemaking and Peacekeeping
John L. Hirsch and Robert B. Oakley. Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 1995