UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), Rapporteur: Somalia

Dadaab in Kenya is the largest refugee camp in the world, established in 1991 as a temporary shelter for 90,000 refugees fleeing the civil war engulfing neighboring Somalia. After years of conflict, famine, and floods, Somalis continue to stream over the border into the camp.
Source: CNN, David McKenzie and Brent Swails, October 15, 2015

Mission of UN General Assembly Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization): "The Special Political and Decolonization Committee deals with a variety of subjects which include those related to decolonization, Palestinian refugees and human rights, peacekeeping..." (General Assembly - Special Political and Decolonization website, "Fourth Committee")

Term of office: 2016-2017

Somalia's Record on "refugees and human rights":
"Major human rights abuses included killings of civilians by al-Shabaab, Somali security forces, and unknown assailants... Other major human rights abuses included ... forced eviction and relocation of internally displaced persons (IDPs); diversion of humanitarian assistance... Refugee Abuse: Refugees lacked sufficient access to protection through law enforcement and the justice system... Conflict during the year involving the government, militias, AMISOM, and al-Shabaab resulted in the death and injury of civilians and the displacement of many others... Clashes throughout the south and central regions resulted in deaths and displacement... [M]ilitias and federal forces skirmished throughout the year, causing internal displacement of persons... Local civil society organizations in Somaliland reported that gang rape continued to be a problem in urban areas, primarily perpetrated by youth gangs and male students. It often occurred in poorer neighborhoods and among immigrants, returned refugees, and displaced rural populations living in urban areas... Somali NGOs documented patterns of rape perpetrated with impunity, particularly of displaced women... Conflict, including fighting between clan militias in the Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, and Hiraan regions, and drought resulted in continued displacement and new displacements. There were more than 1.1 million IDPs across the country, mainly in the southern and central regions... Somali authorities did not prevent the forced displacement of persons from shelters to camps on the outskirts of the city. Some IDPs and humanitarian agencies criticized local authorities for tacitly endorsing the forceful relocation of IDPs to insecure areas in Mogadishu. In the first half of the year, almost 100,000 persons, the vast majority of them IDPs, were forcibly evicted from Mogadishu and other urban areas in the Juba, South West, and Puntland Regions... Somali national police, NISA forces, and city council police forcibly evicted an estimated 21,000 displaced persons in Mogadishu during March. The report claimed Somali authorities beat some of the evicted, destroyed their shelters, and left them without water, food, or other assistance... " (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2015, Somalia)

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