The Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland ( so, Dastuurka Jamhuuriyadda Somaliland; ar, دستور جمهورية صوماليلاند) is the supreme source of national law of

Somaliland Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...

, adopted by the Houses of the Parliament of Somaliland on 30 April 2000. The

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

was approved in a referendum held on May 31, 2001, when 97% of the voters voted in its favour. Its re-published version consists of a preamble (Arar) and five main chapters (Qaybo) each of which is subdivided into parts (Xubno). There is now a total of 130 articles (Qodobo) as compared to the previous 156 articles.

History

has had other constitutional documents of historical importance which range from the international treaties signed by the various Somaliland communities with the British government, and the various constitutional arrangements prior to independence in 1960 to the Declaration of Re-assertion of sovereignty in 1991 (in

Burao Burao, also spelt Bur'o or Bur'ao (; so, Burco, , ar, برعو) is the capital of the Togdheer region and the second largest city in Somaliland. Burao was also the third largest city of Somalia. Burao was the site of the declaration of an in ...

) at one of the earliest grand conferences of the Somaliland communities. Although the Republic of Somaliland was independent for a short period in June 1960, it later unified with Trust Territory of Somalia to form the

Somali Republic The Somali Republic ( so, Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliyeed; it, Repubblica Somala; ar, الجمهورية الصومالية, Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmālīyyah) was a sovereign state composed of Somalia and Somaliland, following the unification o ...

. During that short period no comprehensive constitution was adopted. The

State of Somaliland The State of Somaliland (, ) was a short-lived independent country in the territory of present-day unilaterally declared Republic of Somaliland. It existed on the territory of former British Somaliland for five days between 26 June 1960 and 1 ...

had its own Constitution which was drafted in early 1960, and was briefly in place. The first main Constitutional document of the independent Somaliland was the National Charter (Axdi Qaran), which was signed by the Conference of the Somaliland Communities in 1993 in

Borama Borama ( so, Boorama, ar, بورما) is the Second capital city of Somaliland and the largest city of the northwestern Awdal region of Somaliland The commercial seat of the province, it is situated near the border with Ethiopia. During the Mid ...

. This was followed by the first Somaliland constitution, which was adopted at the conference of the Somaliland Communities in

Hargeisa Hargeisa (; so, Hargeysa, ar, هرجيسا) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland. It is located in the Maroodi Jeex region of the Horn of Africa. It succeeded Burco as the capital of the British Somaliland Protector ...

in February 1997. Under article 151, the constitution shall be implemented for a period of three years from its approval in February 1997 and shall come into force fully once a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...

has been held. There was a provision for this interim period to be increased by the two Houses of Parliament, and in early 2000, the two Houses voted that the period be increased by one year. This was primarily to give more time for the completion of the revision of the constitution (before its submission to the nation at a Referendum) and for putting in place the laws and mechanisms for changing the current "representative" democracy in Somaliland to a popular democracy based on the direct elections of the President of Somaliland and the Parliament of Somaliland. Although initially the Somaliland government proposed fairly extensive amendments to the constitution in 1999, the final revised constitution is not very different from the last one and the reduction of the number of articles from 156 to 130 has been largely achieved by the amalgamation of some articles, rather than by extensive repeals. Unlike the earlier draft proposals, the parts of the constitution relating to directive principles and to human rights have all been retained. On the whole, the revisions tidied up the constitution and no fundamental changes have been made.

References

External links

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Constitution in English
{{Africa in topic, Constitution of

Government of Somaliland