Estonia welcomes the delegation of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
We welcome the positive developments, such as the adoption of a new National Development Plan (NDP-9) and the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Despite numerous accepted recommendations at previous UPR, sexual violence against women remains a serious problem in Somalia and requires urgent and decisive actions by the authorities. The hostile environment with targeted attacks against journalists and other media workers causes grave concern. We encourage Somalia to continue its work in implementing the recommendations from previous UPR cycles.
Estonia would like to recommend to the Federal Government of Somalia to:
- continue the work on the review of the Provisional Constitution of Somalia and its important human rights provisions;
- ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC-OP-AC);
- respect and promote the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
- ensure the freedom of the media, and the safety of journalists, including by ending arbitrary arrests and addressing the impunity around attacks against journalists;
- ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Estonia would like to wish the delegation of Somalia a successful review meeting.
Thank you!