|
On 10 February 2009, the Coalition for Grassroots Women Organizations
(COGWO) marked its 10th anniversary at a colourful event held at a hotel in
Nairobi, Kenya. The occasion brought together COGWO members and partners to
celebrate achievements made over the last 10 years in empowering Somali
women.
COGWO is an umbrella organization composed of 30 local women’s NGOs, drawn
from different clans in Somalia. It was established in 1996 with the
intention of protecting the human rights of Somali women, which had been
severely undermined after the breakdown of the Somali government and the war
that followed.
A significant part of the February 2009 celebrations was dedicated to
highlighting past and current projects. Among the highlights was the ongoing
Legal Aid for Vulnerable People project, funded by UNDP. The overall project
objective is to provide legal aid free of charge for economically deprived,
vulnerable groups and individuals on remand status in prison and in pre-trial
detention at police stations.
The project aims to raise awareness among key criminal justice stakeholders
and within civil society on legal aid and access to justice, as a
prerequisite for the development and maintenance of a just and fair criminal
justice system. In addition to civil society groups, workshops target IDPs,
traditional elders, women groups, minorities, and peace and human rights
district committees. The project also set up meetings with the Somali Law
Society, as well as criminal justice system administrators: police and prison
administrators, judges, and lawyers. The aim was to better link the legal aid
project with all the justice stakeholders, and to gain access to prisons,
police stations and courts. The project also monitors human rights
violations, particularly in areas in Mogadishu worst affected by violence.
Under the Women’s Rights Promotion and Education programme supported by Oxfam
Novib, COGWO has produced booklets on family law that are based exclusively
on sharia law. Other booklets on the law, the state, and the International
Bill of Human Rights have aimed to empower COGWO members and other women
activists as change agents. COGWO’s immediate objective in this programme is
to have its members focus on women’s rights while taking into account Somali
culture and sharia law.
According to a report presented by Prof. Mariam Yusuf Sheikh, COGWO’s senior
legal and programme advisor, the organization has conducted 80 religious
forums in 16 districts of Banadir region over the last 5 years. These
religious forums were each composed of 35 women and 15 men, making a total of
4000 participants. The groups acquired a deep knowledge of gender equality
and human rights from the Islamic perspective. Also, a comparison was made
between the International Bill of Human Rights and sharia law. This knowledge
has been distributed countrywide through videotapes and the audio cassettes.
In November 2000, COGWO member organizations were trained on how to
incorporate counselling services into their ordinary work on human rights.
To counter widespread violence against women during the civil war, COGWO has
set up a documentation centre. The centre has to date facilitated the
documentation of 318 cases of human rights violations, which occurred in
Banadir, Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle regions of south central Somalia.
A total of 299 cases, related to rape, domestic violence, kidnapping, torture
and war-related violence, have been investigated and are monitored on a
regular basis. COGWO has been able to provide rapid medical and financial
assistance to the victims. They are later given legal assistance and
counselling to reintegrate them into their community. In a bid to improve the
skills of its members in documenting the violations of human rights, the
organization held two workshops, attended by over 100 participants, under the
Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programme.
Faiza Jama, Africa regional director of Equality Now and COGWO founder
member, delivered the keynote address during the celebration. She underscored
the critical role played by COGWO in fostering women rights in Somalia: “In
my own reflections, I do believe that COGWO did manage to make a lot of
difference in many ways, including breaking the silence by challenging civil
society to speak up and play an important leading role in the peace-building
efforts; addressing violence against women (by documenting their cases,
giving them treatment, support and counselling, mobilizing doctors and the
business community to support victims of violence against women, etc.); and
opening spaces for more democratic discussion about ending the ongoing
conflict.” These sentiments were echoed by Dorethe Appels, a former Oxfam
Novib officer, “The women leadership that many of you have taken, has been a
life challenge. And it has brought change. As a role model, many other
organizations started working as a coalition. As a female role model, COGWO
women have stimulated other women to start their own organizations, to get
the girls to a higher position, and to debate what clan means to women
leadership.”
With support from UNIFEM, COGWO has raised public awareness on gender-based
violence, as a first step towards empowering women. It organized several
workshops with participants drawn from the media, members of the transitional
government, traditional birth attendants, community health workers, NGOs,
religious groups, youth and women activists. The priority area was Banadir
region. It also commissioned a survey on abuses against young girls in
learning institutions in Mogadishu. COGWO has produced a video documentary on
women’s rights with this core message: “Respect women’s rights as human
rights.” The video is used as an awareness tool among religious leaders,
traditional elders, the political class, the youth and women. In addition,
COGWO launched a campaign in Mogadishu, Hargeisa and Bossaso in 2005 to
eradicate female genital mutilation.
As part of its Women’s Rights Education and Promotion project, COGWO launched
a national policy formulation campaign. A workshop on policy formulation was
held in Mogadishu at Shamo Hotel in early 1999, with participants drawn from
across the southern zone (Banadir, Gedo, Bay, Bakool, Lower Shabelle, Middle
Jubba and Lower Jubba). The workshop drafted the Somali Women’s Charter,
which embodies Somali women’s aspirations and rights. The draft charter has
been presented at six workshops for debate and adoption.
COGWO considers the young generation to be change agents in the community and
developed a strategy to promote literacy among the youth. Over 30 youth have
benefited from training in computer applications and English. Twenty female
students from economically disadvantaged families benefited from university
and institute sponsorship.
Peace building has been high on the agenda of COGWO, with a focus on
Mogadishu city. COGWO established district peace committees in the 16
districts of Banadir region. In 2007, the organization undertook a survey to
identify the needs of the IDPs in the surrounding regions of Galgadud, Hiran,
Lower Shabelle, Bay and Bakool. This facilitated the provision of food,
non-food items and psychosocial services to 200,000 families. COGWO has also
given prominence to HIV/AIDS, with projects being implemented in Banadir,
Hiraan, Bay, Bakool and Galgadud. The organization now has a pool of peer
educators who are trainers of trainers. About 7,200 people who received food
and non-food items also received messages on HIV/AIDS.
Despite the many achievements, COGWO has faced numerous challenges. “It was
such a challenge for COGWO to build up a strong constituency, listen to the
people and serve their needs, and to practice what you preach: not
circumcising your own daughters, supporting the UIDHR openly, carrying out a
survey on Muslim schools of thought in Mogadishu, sharing women’s rights with
Puntland and Somaliland, and all for the improvement of the position of
women”, said Ms. Appels. According to Faiza Jama, the struggle must continue
if COGWO is to make a bigger impact: “The values we have set for COGWO when
we started have to be strengthened. If we don’t then we will lose credibility
and we will not be able to carry on the worthy cause that we started 10 years
ago.”
The 10th anniversary was attended by dignitaries and representatives from
different organizations, including Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, Ambassador
Mohamed Ali (Ameeriko), and the Counsellor of Djibouti Embassy in Kenya
Nasser Mohamoud.
|