Human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

in Somaliland are protected by Chapter one, Part three of the

Constitution of Somaliland The Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland ( so, Dastuurka Jamhuuriyadda Somaliland; ar, دستور جمهورية صوماليلاند) is the supreme source of national law of Somaliland, adopted by the Houses of the Parliament of So ...

. Somaliland is an unrecognised

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...

in the Horn of Africa, internationally considered to be part of

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

. Amnesty International criticizes the persistence of the death penalty and cases of controversial detentions and trials in Somaliland. In January 2007, the editor and several journalists of the ''Haatuf'' newspaper were arrested because they had "defamed" the president's family with their corruption allegations. Under pressure from Somalilander expats and local media, the government released the journalists after 86 days in custody. Other journalists dealing with corruption were also victims of intimidation. Asylum seekers from the Ethiopian regions of Somali and

Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Be ...

, who are suspected of supporting the separatist

Ogaden National Liberation Front The Ogaden National Liberation Front (abbreviated ONLF, so, Jabhadda Wadaniga Xoreynta Ogaadeeniya; ar, الجبهة الوطنية لتحرير أوجادين) is a social and political movement, founded in 1984 to campaign for the right to ...

(ONLF) or the Oromo Liberation Front, have been repatriated to Ethiopia at the request of the

Ethiopian government The government of Ethiopia () is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. T ...

. According to human rights organizations, these people are at risk of arbitrary detention and torture. However, this order was not carried out. As of 2009, Freedom House names the following human rights problems in Somaliland: corruption, interference and harassment of journalists, banning non-Islamic proselytizing, banning public demonstrations, lack of due process and prolonged detention before trial, weak judiciary and female genital mutilation.

Freedom of expression

It is forbidden in Somaliland to promote the unity of Somaliland with

, or to wear the

flag of Somalia The flag of Somalia ( so, Calanka Soomaaliyeed, ar, علم الصومال), also known as the Somali flag, was adopted on October 12, 1954, and was designed by Mohammed Awale Liban. The flag was initially used within the Trust Territory of Soma ...

References

External links

Somaliland human rights lawSomaliland National Human Rights Commission
Human rights in Somaliland Politics of Somaliland Society of Somaliland {{Somaliland-stub