Human rights should be "at forefront" of peace talks - Amnesty

The London-based rights group Amnesty International (AI) has called for human rights to be at forefront of discussions at the Somali peace conference now being held in Kenya.

In a statement issued this week, AI said a new interim government was likely to emerge from the talks within few months if obstacles to an agreement could be overcome. For that reason, "strong international support for human rights reconstruction is now needed more than ever".

The statement said that despite the Somali parties having signed a ceasefire agreement on 27 October 2002, there had been numerous violations, with many crimes going unpunished due to the absence of "a system of justice and policing".

"Amnesty International therefore recommends that human rights monitoring is added to the task of the ceasefire monitors, so as to begin to address the wider questions of impunity and accountability, which will be central to ensuring that there is lasting peace and the beginnings of the law during the period of the next stage of interim government and beyond," the statement said.

It called on the international community to support the establishment of human rights advisers and monitors to start at the same time as the ceasefire monitoring.

AI said it opposed "a general amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity and gross human rights abuses of the past three decades".

It warned that any new government which contained individuals who had committed gross human rights abuses "could hardly attract international acceptability", adding that as far as possible a new interim government should comprise "only members with a clean human rights record and non-involvement with abuses".

"The current political leaders and potential interim government members must pledge commitment to peace and justice and prevent and punish new abuses by faction militias," the statement said.

It also called for the recognition and support of human rights achievements. In the self-declared republic of Somaliland "there is generally peace and personal security, freedom of the media, and an active local NGO community", with multiparty elections taking place, AI observed.

However, in all other areas of Somalia, human rights abuses and outbreaks of violence were continuing, with human rights defenders at constant risk, it said.