Foreign Affairs committee  The political strategy in Somalia, which is really going to have to be owned by the Somali government or governments and not by external actors, is to address grievances. Al Shabaab thrives off of grievances, both real and sometimes exaggerated, on the part of clans and other s

Foreign Affairs committee  You have indeed asked the million-dollar question, and I wish I had a million-dollar answer in response. One thing is for sure: our conventional approaches over the past couple of decades have not worked. We are chronically frustrated with our local partners, especially at the

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Honourable members of the standing committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the question of improving our ability to address the issues of conflict, peace, gender-based violence, security, justice, respect for human rights and economic developmen

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To draw on a carrots and sticks analogy, I would say that we must have sticks to threaten with legal action the Somalia diaspora that are misbehaving and are part of the problem, then we need to focus on what carrots we have to incentivize good behaviour there. Some of the best

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I do believe it's possible, even though I'm quite pessimistic right now. I think Somalia is rolling towards a potential major crisis. In the long term, what I have found is that Somalis, as fragmented as they are politically, are more economically integrated nationally, regionall

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The reality is that in places like Somalia, whether we like it or not—and reasonable people can differ about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, or just a thing—the government is going to remain weak for the foreseeable future. We know that state-building and institution

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Al Shabaab is mostly funded by its own ability to tax everything and everyone in Somalia. It has a very effective network called the Amniyat that knows every Somali civil servant, every business person, and every plantation owner. They tax them systematically. Not paying the tax

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's the critical question right now. As the African Union peacekeeping forces begin to redeploy, the current strategy is that we have to accelerate support to Somali armed forces and the Somali security sector, so that they can step in and assume the very important roles AMISOM

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. There are a couple of different strategies that one can adopt with regard to the diaspora. One is simply to issue a warning. We did have this happen a number of months ago. Almost a year ago several of the embassies in and on Somalia made statements to the effect that citi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. I would just add that, in addition to the existential threat that al Shabaab poses to journalists, state laws, at both the national and the federal level, the regional level in Somalia, have really cracked down on journalists. We've seen some serious backsliding in parts of

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, thank you. Somalia does have a number of regional states in the federal system, a few of which are pretty functional and have been for some time. Setting aside the unrecognized, secessionist state of Somaliland in the northwest—which is another conversation, but has had a p

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  At this point, I can't speak to the competence of the individuals who have stepped into those positions. I will repeat what Ian said, which is that I think we have to be really careful about counting too much on individual personalities overcoming really structural problems in So

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Good afternoon, and thank you for including me in these proceedings. I'd like to make a few opening remarks underscoring some of the broad trends and patterns of human rights violations in Somalia. The first observation is that human rights violations remain a major chronic and