Welcome to Episode 4 of Justice Studio Sessions. In this episode we will be discussing Children’s Rights in Somaliland. Justice Studio worked in Somaliland during 2014 and 2015 to develop their first Children's Rights Act. We were working for a taskforce led by the Somaliland Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), UNICEF and Save the Children. The creation of the Act included consultations across the country with children, teachers, parents, elders and religious authorities.
During this project our colleague was the inspiring and impressive Guleid Ahmed Jama who joins us for this episode. Guleid is a Human Rights Lawyer and activist. He established and was Chair of the Human Rights Centre Somaliland from 2013 to 2019, and he's also just completed a PhD on children's rights in unrecognised States at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
In this episode we discuss the country of Somaliland – how it came to be – and is still unrecognised, and what that means for children. We also delve into the process we went through in creating what became the Children’s Rights Protection Act and what this act looks like today. Please note that we cover some difficult topics in detail including discrimination, child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).
Links for this episode:
Follow Gulied on Twitter: @GuleidJ
Follow the Human Rights Centre Somaliland on Twitter: @hrcsomaliland
The Human Rights Centre Somaliland website: hrcsomaliland.org
Justice Studio’s website: www.justicestudio.org
Follow Justice Studio on Instagram: @justicestudio
Follow Justice Studio on Twitter: @justicestudio
Follow Marianne on Instagram @creatrix.london
