As the Somali – Abyssinian borderline is porous and many Ogadenis cross onto parts of Somalia either in the South or in the area of the illegal pseudo-states Puntland and Somalialnd, the alliance between Somaliland´s ruling Mafia and the Tigray / Amhara – led tyranny of Abyssinia further worsens the troubles of the oppressed nations of the region who happen to live in deplorable conditions of Human Rights´ violations. If we take into consideration Somaliland´s ruling Mafia´s practices, it is not odd that Ms. Bisharo Wa´di Shaqlane was reported as extradited to Abyssinia a few days ago. However, if we take into account Somaliland´s ruling Mafia´s efforts to achieve international recognition, even by just few marginal states, we can safely claim that Hargeisa´s gangsters either act irrationally against their own interests or are already absolutely sure that they will never be recognized even by one pariah state.
The repeated practice of refoulement by the illegitimate authorities of the illegal state Somaliland only adds perjury to treason. Acting like this, the Anti-Somali authorities of Hargeisa make it sure that they will never be recognized by any state in the world, either peace prevails in Somalia or not.
Infamous and idiotic puppets of the Amhara – Tigray racist regime of Abyssinia, the gangsters of Hargeisa act straightforwardly against their own interests in order to serve the enemies of the Somali Nation; and in the process, they violate some of the cornerstones of the International Law, i.e. the principle of non-refoulement.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples´ Rights states the following about the obligation of every lawful adminsitration to implement the principle of non refoulement:
"The principle of non-refoulement is well established in customary international law, prohibiting states from expelling, deporting or extraditing persons to countries where they face torture or ill-treatment. Non-refoulement is a fundamental rule of refugee law and several human rights instruments forbid the return of a person who has reason to fear for his/her life or physical integrity in his/her country of origin".
(Communication No. 97/93 / Tenth Annual Activity Report 1996-1997, Annex X)
http://www.humanrights.is/the-human-rights-rpoject/humanrightscasesandmaterials/comparativeanalysis/tortureorcrual/deportation/
I herewith republish a press release issued earlier today by the Ogaden Human Rights Committee that sheds light on the appalling practices of the terrorist state Somaliland.
At the end of the present article, I also republish a document released by the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights that explains the importance of the principle of non refoulement in terms of International Law.
Somaliland: Illegally Arrests and Renders Bisharo Wa´di Shaqlane to Ethiopian Security Forces
http://www.ogadenrights.org/
Press Release
Date: 18th February 2010
Ref: OHRC/PR1/0210
On February 10th 2010, family members and relatives of Ms. Bisharo Wa´di Shaqlane informed Ogaden Human Rights Committee about her arrest by members of Somaliland Police and Ethiopian Security Forces. Since then her fate and whereabouts are unknown to her family.
Ms. Bisharo is a prominent feminist who was detained several times under different pretexts by the Ethiopian government. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee has extensively documented her ordeal from 1996 to 2007 and all details about her past detention dates can be found in OHRC´s reports. See www.ogadenrights.org. During her detention periods she has undergone physical and psychological torture and she bears physical and psychological scars of the torture. Each time after long months of incommunicado detention without charges or trial she was released on bail, and was restricted to her detention location. In 2007, she escaped from her torturers and fled to Hargeisa seeking safety for her children and herself, where she registered herself as a refugee.
Contrary to the letter and spirit of all human rights instruments which provide protection against refoulement, such as; The UN Convention against Torture, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Somaliland administration handed over an innocent asylum seeker to the Ethiopian government, which systematically tortures detainees, including prisoners of conscience to extract confessions or information under duress.
In Somaliland, for the last 14 years, many Somalis from the Ogaden were detained, tortured, their private properties confiscated and then forcibly handed over to the Ethiopian government against their will, in exchange for political favours. Most of them were traders, residents, asylum seeker and visitors, who were not involved in any illegal activities and have no political affiliations whatsoever.
Many of those who were forcibly returned to Ethiopia have since disappeared in the notorious military detention camps throughout Ethiopia and were never seen again by their loved ones while others were tortured to death.
To the best of the Ogaden Human Rights Committee´s knowledge, Ms. Bisharo was not involved in any illegal activity. She was only an ardent feminist who spoke out against rape of women, domestic violence and genital mutilation.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee calls for her to be either charged with recognizable criminal offence and be given fair trial or immediately and unconditionally released. The OHRC also fears for her safety and well-being, particularly in view of constant reports about confessions made under duress.
This fear is heightened by the baseless assertions of Mr. Abdi Mohamoud Omar, the head of the Somali Regional State Security and Justice Bureau, who falsely claimed, during an interview with VOA Somali Section that Ms. Bisharo was detained while she was in the area between Dhagaxbuur and Xarshin. Mr. Omar also verbally attacked and accused her of masterminding of a mine (hand grenade) attack which took place in Jigjiga, on May 28th 2007.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee condemns all acts of killing, torture, arbitrary arrests, dispossession and forcible repatriation of refugees from the Ogaden from the neighbouring Somali administrations.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee requests the international community, human rights and humanitarian organisations´ immediate intervention on behalf of Ms. Bisharo´s family to secure her immediate and unconditional release.
The OHRC calls upon the Ethiopian government to respect Ms. Bisharo´s basic human rights, including informing her family and relatives about her whereabouts, and granting unrestricted and regular access to them and to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ogaden Human Rights Committee
http://www.ogadenrights.org/
E-mail: ohrc@ogadenrights.org
The Principle of Non-refoulement
www.ihf-hr.org/viewbinary/viewdocument.php?doc_id=6731
The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of international law. This principle is set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention, article 33 (1) of which states that "No Contracting State shall expel or return ("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion". (1) The convention does list a number of grounds on which a person may be refouled. According to article 33 / 2, the ban on forcibly returning refugees to a country where they may face persecution does not apply to a refugee "whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country in which he is or who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community of that country". However, this provision is only valid under highly exceptional circumstances: for it to be applicable it must be proved that there is a direct link between the presence of a refugee in the territory of a particular country and a national security threat to that country. (2)
The principle of non-refoulement is also enshrined in a number of international treaties regulating terrorism and/or extradition. (3) For example, the European Convention on Extradition prohibits extradition in cases where a state party has "substantial grounds for believing that a request for extradition […] has been made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on account of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion, or that that person's position may be prejudiced for any of these reasons" (article 3.2). (4) The latter part of this provision may be understood, for instance, to cover cases where the person to be extradited would be deprived of internationally recognized rights of defence in the requesting state. (5) n specific guidelines on human rights and counter-terrorism measures that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted in July 2002 the standard is further elaborated: "When the person whose extradition has been requested makes out an arguable case that he/she has suffered or risks suffering a flagrant denial of justice in the requesting State, the requested State must consider the well-foundedness of that argument before deciding whether to grant extradition" (paragraph XIII 4). (6) According to international extradition standards, a state may also refuse extradition if the offence that is the basis for the extradition request carries the death penalty under the law of the requesting state, unless that state makes assurances that the death penalty will not be imposed or, if imposed, will not be carried out. (7) It should be noted here that those states that have ratified Protocol No. 6 of the ECHR have an obligation not to extradite any persons to a country where they may face the death penalty. (8) The July 2002 Council of Europe guidelines also list the use of the death penalty in a requesting state as a mandatory ground for refusing to extradite. (9)
Furthermore, major human rights treaties prohibit the forcible return of persons to countries where they may be exposed to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The UN Convention against Torture (CAT) states that "No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture" (article 3). (10) According to the UN Committee Against Torture the term "another state" may refer to a state to which a person is returned in the first place as well as any state where he or she may subsequently be returned. (11) The ICCPR and the ECHR do not contain any explicit provisions on the topic. However, the UN Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have interpreted the ban on refoulement as being inherent in those articles that prohibit torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment (ICCPR, article 7; ECHR, article 3). (12) According to the European Court of Human Rights, transferring a person to a country where he or she risks treatment or punishment in violation of article 3 of the ECHR would be "contrary to the spirit and intention" of this article. (13) Most importantly, derogation from article 3 of the CAT, article 7 of the ICCPR or article 3 of the ECHR is not allowed under any circumstances. In other words, the prohibition against returning someone to a state where there are substantial grounds to fear that he or she may be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is absolute under these articles.
In line with the standards outlined above, the OSCE member states acknowledged at the 1990 Human Dimension Meeting in Copenhagen that "[…] no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture" (paragraph 16.3). The principle of non-refoulement is also widely considered to be international customary law, which means that all states, whether or not they are a party to the human rights and/or refugee conventions incorporating the prohibition against refoulement, are obliged not to return or extradite any person to a country where the life or safety of that person would be seriously endangered. (14)
Notes
1 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted on 26 July 1951, at http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?page=basics.
2 Human Rights Watch, "Human Rights Implications of European Union Internal Security Proposals and Measures in the Aftermath of the 11 September Attacks in the United States", November 2001, at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/11/eusecurity.htm.
3 See International Commission of Jurists, Terrorism and Human Rights, p. 246.
4 The European Convention on Terrorism, adopted on 13 December 1957, at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/CadreListeTraites.htm. See also UN Model Treaty on Extradition, General Assembly Resolution 45/116, at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r116.htm.
5 Council of Europe, Explanatory Report on the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, (ETS no. 090), at http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/EN/cadreprincipal.htm, which contains a similar provision to that of the European Convention on Extradition, although it does not explicitly prohibit states from extraditing a person to a country where he/she may suffer due to his or her race, religion, nationality or political opinion but allows them to refuse extradition on such grounds.
6 Guidelines of the Committee of the Ministers of the Council on Europe on human rights and the fight against terrorism, adopted on 15 July 2002, at http://press.coe.int/cp/2002/369a(2002).htm.
7 See for example, article 11 of the European Convention on Extradition, and article 4 of the UN Model Treaty on Extradition.
8 Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty, adopted on 28 April 1983, at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/CadreListeTraites.htm.
9 Guidelines of the Committee of the Ministers of the Council on Europe on human rights and the fight against terrorism, para. XIII 2.
10 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, adopted 10 December 1984, at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm.
11 Human Rights Watch, "Human Rights Implications of European Union Internal Security Proposals…".
12 International Commission of Jurists, Terrorism and Human Rights, p. 246.
13 European Court of Human Rights, Soering v. the United Kingdom.
14 UNHCR, Refugee Protection: A Guide to International Refugee Law, December 2001.
Note
This is an excerpt from the chapter on "Extraditions, Expulsions and Deportations" included in the IHF report Anti-terrorism Measures, Security and Human Rights – Developments in Europe, Central Asia and North America in the Aftermath of September 11 (2003).
Note. Picture: Ogadeni feminist activist Bisharo Wa´di Shaqlane (in Somali: Bishaaro Wacdi Shaqlane) From: http://www.ogadentoday.com/news.php
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Edited bye;-
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis.
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