Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
August 23, 2004
Posted to the web August 23, 2004
Joyce Mulama
Nairobi
Women from Somalia have expressed concern at the fact that they risk being under-represented in their country's new transitional parliament, which was sworn in Sunday, Aug. 22.
According to an agreement reached in negotiations for restoring central government in the East African nation, a minimum of 12 percent of the 275 legislators should be women.
However, only 16 women were inaugurated as members of parliament at the swearing in ceremony, which took place at the United Nations complex in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
Sixty-one members of the legislature still have to be appointed by a group to which these seats were allocated. However, certain Somali women have already indicated their intention to petition the UN, so the global body can intervene if necessary to ensure that parliament has its full quota of women legislators.
"We are putting up a case for the UN and the entire international community to investigate why all the 33 women were not sworn in yesterday. This discrimination must stop," Asha Abdi, a delegate to the Somalia talks, told IPS Sunday.
"Any man found occupying a woman's seat must be uprooted. It is time for women to demand what is theirs, even politically," she added. "We are writing a letter to these organisations, asking them to move very fast in ensuring that women get their rightful share."
Abdi also highlighted the fact that of the 366 delegates who have held talks for the past two years to end strife in Somalia, only 41 are women. The delegates to the Somali talks comprise faction, traditional and religious leaders - as well as representatives from civil society organisations.
Prior to the swearing in ceremony, women delegates to the talks held a demonstration to protest against a perceived attempt by their male colleagues to marginalise them in the new legislature. They shouted, sang and carried placards bearing messages such as "Women are more than 50 percent in Somalia. They deserve a greater representation".
Each of Somalia's four main clans - the Hawiye, Dir, Darod and Digil-Mirifle - have been allocated 61 seats in the transitional legislature, while a group of 14 smaller clans has 31 seats.
Only 203 parliamentarians took the oath of office Sunday, however. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body that has mediated in the Somali talks, said this was mostly the result of disputes between sub-clans of the Darod group over names that had been floated for appointment.
"We are confident that the remaining members of parliament will be sworn in (in) about two weeks time, when we hope all the disputes will have been resolved," Bethuel Kiplagat, IGAD's special envoy to the peace talks, said. IGAD comprises Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
The inauguration ceremony of the parliamentarians, who will serve for a period of five years, had already been postponed three times because of disagreements over power-sharing between various Somali factions.
Despite this hitch, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed elation at the establishment of the transitional legislature.
"This is the beginning of a long-awaited reconciliation," he said in a statement. On Jul. 8, Annan visited the delegates in Nairobi in a bid to add momentum to the peace process.
Somalia's new lawmakers are expected to elect a parliamentary speaker who will oversee the election of a president. This will be followed by the appointment of a prime minister, and a cabinet.
The swearing in of the parliament comes 13 years after Somalia plunged into political anarchy with the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre - making it the only country in the world without a central government. Since then, Somalia has been ruled by various faction leaders who have fought for control of parts of the country; over 300,000 people are said to have died in this civil war.
Somali peace negotiations resulted in a ceasefire that was signed in October 2002. An agreement mapping out the political future of the country was adopted at the beginning of 2004.
Soon after Barre's downfall, Somaliland, a territory lying in the country's north-west, declared itself independent from the rest of Somalia - although this move have yet to be recognised by the international community. Puntland, an area in north-eastern Somalia, followed suit in 1998.