MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

17.6.2008

with request for inclusion in the agenda for the debate on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law
pursuant to Rule 115 of the Rules of Procedure
by Pasqualina Napoletano, Glenys Kinnock, Alain Hutchinson, Juan Fraile Cantón
on behalf of the PSE Group
on Routine killing of civilians in Somalia

NB: This motion for a resolution is available in the original language only.

B6‑0325/2008

European Parliament resolution on Routine killing of civilians in Somalia

The European Parliament,

-  having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Somalia,

-  having regard to the previous statements made by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, Javier Solana, and by Commissioner Louis Michel,

- having regard to the EU Presidency's Statement on Somalia of 11 June 2008,

-  having regard to the Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on Somalia on 9 May 2008,

-  having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas widespread human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Somalia, specifically torture and other ill-treatment, rape, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure continue to occur in Somalia,

B.  whereas an estimated 100 people were killed and thousands fled their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in recent days following renewed fighting between Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops and insurgents, as a result of the rejection by some Islamist leaders of a UN-brokered, three-month ceasefire deal signed in Djibouti by the TFG and the ARS,

C.  whereas the number of grave human rights violations against children in Somalia, from acts of murder and rape to the recruitment of child soldiers to the denial of humanitarian access to those in need, have all increased in the past year,

D.  whereas a prominent Somali aid worker, the head of the local Woman and Child Care aid agency, Mohamed Mahdi, was shot dead in the capital, Mogadishu, by unidentified gunmen,

E.  whereas since February 2007, some 340,000 Somalis have fled fighting in Mogadishu, while 2.6 million Somalis - about 35 per cent of the population - are in need of humanitarian assistance,

F.  whereas the UN Secretary-General urged the Ethiopian forces to “refrain from indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including but not limited to schools and hospitals” and called on the Ethiopian authorities to investigate allegations of grave violations against children by their forces,

• 1.Calls on all sides to the conflict to halt immediately all violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, stop attacks targeting civilians, cease all use of death threats, rape, unlawful arrest, kidnapping, intimidation and robbing of civilians and abide fully with the provisions of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions;
• 2.Calls on the UN Security Council to strengthen the monitoring and reporting on human rights conditions, provide assistance and advice to the Transitional Federal Institutions, and support human rights defenders throughout Somalia;
• 3.Urges the TFG to engage in a genuine reconciliation process with all parties to the conflict within the country to create conditions for security and stability;
• 4.Calls on the international community to renew and sustain diplomatic efforts to end the ongoing violence and to hold those party to the ceasefire agreement to account;
• 5.Calls on the International Contact Group on Somalia, the African Union, donor states contributing to the TFG, including the EU, Norway and the United States to support mechanisms to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed in Somalia in 2007 and 2008;
• 6.Calls for investigations into all incidents of grave child rights violations and demands that the TFG end the detention of children and control the proliferation of small arms;
• 7.Urges all sides to the conflict to take all necessary steps to ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance to affected populations in the country, and take effective measures to ensure the safety of local and international humanitarian workers;
• 8.Calls on the UN Security Council to strengthen the UN arms embargo on Somalia and take more determined action to ensure the embargo is fully respected by states in the region;
• 9.Calls for an end to all foreign military intervention in Somalia;
• 10.Warns that, unless strong measures are quickly taken by the international community to stabilise and gradually improve the situation, there is a clear risk of the Somalia conflict growing into a regional war affecting the entire Horn of Africa;
• 11.Strongly encourages that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and any succeeding UN peacekeeping mission be mandated to protect civilians – including women, children and internally displaced persons – and include a strong human rights component with the capacity to monitor, investigate and report human rights violations;
• 12.Calls for a strengthening of the role of civil society – particularly women – in the process of national reconciliation;
• 13.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Member States, the Secretaries-General of the African Union, the UN and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, the Government of Ethiopia and the Pan-African Parliament.