1 Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Advocacy Toolkit, Professional Training Series No. 15, HR/P/PT/15, 2008, available at: www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/AdvocacyTool_en.pdf (all internet references were accessed in July 2022) (describing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a “paradigm shift in the treatment of persons with disabilities from a medical or charity perspective to a rights-based approach”). The World Humanitarian Summit's Agenda for Humanity also focused on this, albeit more broadly for the humanitarian sphere. One author has written that the Agenda “requires us to place equality and solidarity at the heart of our decision making processes, and remove the notion of ‘charity’. Putting communities in the driving seat brings back their dignity in the midst of crisis. It also opens space for meaningful dialogue between humanitarians and vulnerable people on addressing needs; improves accountability; and crucially, shifts the power dynamic that is perpetuated by perceptions of international humanitarianism being the ‘rescuers’ of vulnerable communities.” Paul Murphy, “Humanitarian Reform Must Be a Collective Endeavour”, Safer World Blog, 19 August 2018, available at: www.saferworld.org.uk/resources/news-and-analysis/post/786-humanitarian-reform-must-be-a-collective-endeavour.

2 Metz, Helen Chapin (ed.), Somalia: A Country Study, Library of Congress, Field Research Division, 1993Google Scholar.

3 Africa Watch, Somalia: A Government at War with Its Own People, London, January 1990.

4 The region of Somaliland self-declared independence on 18 May 1991 following the collapse of President Siad Barre's regime. This self-declaration is not internationally recognized.

5 Mohamed Trunji, Somalia: The Untold History 1941–1969, Looh Press, Leicester, 2015, p. xxvi, notes that “[r]egrettably, it has not been possible to consult the many important documents kept in government offices in Somalia before the civil war, which, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were destroyed by the gangs who occupied Mogadisho and other major urban centres at the beginning of 1991.”

6 See the Somali Disability Cooperative Facebook page, available at: www.facebook.com/iskaashatadanaafada/. The chairperson, Warsame Abdhullahi (known by the nickname “Indhole”, meaning “blind”), was able to influence the then president, Siad Barre, and has been credited by some with the achievements in disability inclusion that took place during that time.

7 Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 – Somalia, 1 January 1993, available at: www.refworld.org/docid/467fca601e.html (stating that “[b]etween November 1991 and February 1992, Africa Watch and Physicians for Human Rights documented 14,000 people were killed and 27,000 injured in Mogadishu. An unknown number were permanently disabled. Tens of thousands more were psychologically scarred and will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and varieties of pathological grief, not only because of the horrors they have suffered, but also because of the failure to observe traditional rituals to respect the dead”).

8 Interview with key informant, 6 April 2022.

9 Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia, 2012, Art. 11(1): “All citizens, regardless of sex, religion, social or economic status, political opinion, clan, disability, occupation, birth or dialect shall have equal rights and duties before the law” (emphasis added).

10 Ibid., Art. 27(5).

11 Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Disability Rights in Somalia, 2014, p. 2, available at: https://cdn.sida.se/app/uploads/2021/05/07125817/rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-somalia.pdf (noting that no budget had been provided).

12 See the Ottawa Convention website's page for Somalia, available at: https://new.apminebanconvention.org/en/membership/somalia/.

13 The MoWHRD has developed a subsequent Road Map for 2020–23.

14 MoWHRD, Rapid Assessment of the Status of Children with Disabilities in Somalia, 2020, available at: https://mwhrd.gov.so/en/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Rapid-Assessment-Children-with-Disabilites-in-Somalia_Report_FA_Digital-1-1.pdf. The minister acknowledged that the extensive progress made would not have been possible without the determination and advocacy of Somalis with disabilities and their representative organizations.

15 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, UNGA Res. 61/106, 13 December 2006 (entered into force 3 May 2008).

16 SIDA, above note 11 (noting that “[t]here are no reliable statistics of prevalence of disabilities in the Somali population”).

17 World Bank, “Disability Inclusion”, available at: www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability.

18 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Humanitarian Needs Overview Somalia: Humanitarian Programme Cycle 2022, October 2021, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2y8777kh.

19 SIDA, above note 11.

20 US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Somalia 2021 Human Rights Report, 12 April 2022, p. 43, available at: www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/313615_SOMALIA-2021-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf.

21 Amnesty International, Somalia: Prioritise Protection for People with Disabilities, 12 March 2015, p. 18, available at: www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AFR5211662015ENGLISH.pdf.

22 UNSOM Human Rights and Protection Group (HRPG) and UN Human Rights, Situation Analysis of Persons with Disabilities in Somalia, 2019. On file with author.

23 Brigitte Rohwerder, Disability in Somalia, K4D Helpdesk Report, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, 19 January 2018, p. 2, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y2ekbcbp.

24 Human Rights Watch, “Chained Like Prisoners”: Abuses against People with Psychosocial Disabilities in Somaliland, 2015, p. 24, available at: www.hrw.org/report/2015/10/25/chained-prisoners/abuses-against-people-psychosocial-disabilities-somaliland.

25 Aragsan Samatar, Somali Parents and Their Perceptions of the Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis, St Catherine University Repository, Sophia, 2016, available at: https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1668&context=msw_papers.

26 At the timing of writing, Somalia had “confirmed pockets of catastrophic food insecurity”. This means that the affected population have extreme critical levels of acute malnutrition and mortality, a situation identified by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (see below note 60) as a Famine (Phase 5). See OCHA, Somalia: Drought Response and Famine Prevention, Situation Report No. 8, 30 June 2022, available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-drought-response-and-famine-prevention-situation-report-no-8-30-june-2022.

27 International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, “Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief”, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/publications/icrc-002-1067.pdf.

28 Sarah Dalrymple and Amanda Thomas, Supporting Longer Term Development in Crises at the Nexus: Lessons from Somalia, February 2021, p. 50, available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Supporting_longer_term_development_in_crises_at_the_nexus_Lessons_from_Somalia.pdf (stating that “[i]nterviewees unanimously argue that a crisis is not a crisis if it happens every year”); Marc DuBois, The New Humanitarian Basics, Humanitarian Policy Group Working Paper, May 2018, p. 8, available at: https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/12201.pdf (stating that the term “protracted crisis” is an oxymoron); Alfonso Medinilla, Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw and Pauline Veron, Think Local: Governance, Humanitarian Aid, Development and Peacebuilding in Somalia, Discussion Paper No. 246, March 2019, p. 9, available at: https://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/DP246-march-2019-think-local-Governance-humanitarian-aid-development-peacebuilding-Somalia-ECDPM1.pdf (stating that “Somalia is a good example of a country in which a state of crisis has become the norm”).

29 Norah Niland, Riccardo Polastro, Antonio Donini and Amra Lee, Independent Whole of System Review of Protection in the Context of Humanitarian Action, Norwegian Refugee Council, May 2015, p. 16, available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/final_whole_of_system_report.pdf.

30 Christina Bennett and Matthew Foley, Time to Let Go: Remaking Humanitarian Action for the Modern Era, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, March 2016, p. 35, available at: https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/10422.pdf (stating that “in protracted crises, humanitarian activities – and aspirations – have, by default, expanded into recovery and basic service provision, including long-term health, nutrition and education, food assistance, livelihoods support and social protection measures”).

31 A. Medinilla, L. Tadesse Shiferaw and P. Veron, above note 28, p. 9.

32 UN Accountability Project – Somalia, “Neither Inevitable nor Accidental: The Impact of Marginalisation in Somalia”, in Michael Keating and Matt Waldman (eds), War and Peace in Somalia: National Grievances, Local Conflict and Al-Shabaab, Hurst, London, 2018, p. 41.

33 OCHA, Humanitarian Response Plan Somalia: Humanitarian Programme Cycle 2022, December 2021, p. 24, available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2022_Somalia_HRP.pdf.

34 Humanitarian Library, “Guidance for Humanitarian Country Teams”, available at: www.humanitarianlibrary.org/resource/guidance-humanitarian-country-teams-0.

35 See the Somali NGO Consortium website, available at: www.somaliangoconsortium.org/.

36 OCHA Services, Humanitarian Response, “Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) Terms of Reference”, available at: www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/documents/files/iccg_tor_23mar2016.pdf.

37 “Joint Statement to the Donor Community: NGOs Call upon Donors to Urgently Fund Somalia Drought Crisis”, 1 February 2022, available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/joint-statement-donor-community-ngos-call-upon-donors-urgently-fund-somalia-drought.

38 The Grand Bargain is an agreement between certain large donors and humanitarian organizations with the aim of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action. See Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), Grand Bargain Workstream 2, commitment 3, available at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/grand-bargain (committing to “[s]upport and complement national coordination mechanisms where they exist and include national responders in international coordination mechanisms as appropriate and in keeping with humanitarian principles”). See also IASC, “Statement by Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) on Accountability to Affected People in Humanitarian Action”, 14 April 2022, available at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/accountability-and-inclusion/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-iasc-accountability-affected-people (reaffirming commitment to diverse, locally led coordination platforms and local leadership).

39 IASC, IASC Guidance on Strengthening Participation, Representation and Leadership of Local and National Actors in IASC Humanitarian Coordination Mechanisms, July 2021, available at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/operational-response/iasc-guidance-strengthening-participation-representation-and-leadership-local-and-national-actors.

40 Article 32 of the UNCRPD, above note 15, reflects a comprehensive approach to international cooperation, including financial cooperation, cooperation in research and access to scientific and technical knowledge, capacity-building and training programmes, exchange of information and access to assistive technologies, etc.

41 Six focus areas were examined in the selected countries: use of technical guidance, participation, data, country team dynamics, leadership, and monitoring.

42 UNGA Res. 48/96, UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, UN Doc. A/RES/48/96, 14 March 1996, Rule 1, available at: www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/standard-rules-on-the-equalization-of-opportunities-for-persons-with-disabilities.html (the importance of awareness-raising is reflected in the first standard rule, as persons with disabilities considered that attitudinal barriers are one of the most significant barriers to inclusion).

43 UNCRPD, above note 15, Art. 1.

44 Article 11 of the UNCRPD, above note 15, obliges States Parties to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, such as situations resulting from armed conflicts, humanitarian emergencies or natural disasters.

45 OECD, Development Assistance Committee, The OECD-DAC Policy Marker on the Inclusion and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities: Handbook for Data Reporters and Users, 10 December 2020, available at: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/STAT(2020)48/en/pdf.

46 Abualghaib, Ola, Groce, Nora, Simeu, Natalie, Carew, Mark T. and Mont, Daniel, “Making Visible the Invisible: Why Disability-Disaggregated Data is Vital to ‘Leave No-One Behind’”, Sustainability, Vol. 11, No. 11, 2019,CrossRefGoogle Scholar available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113091.

47 Ibid., p. 3096.

48 The calculation of “people in need” in humanitarian contexts is challenging. The overall guiding principle is need, with some exceptions based on status. As such, there is no automatic assumption that persons with disabilities have need of humanitarian assistance in a humanitarian setting. Need is accordingly subject to an assessment process generally conducted at scale. See IASC Information Management Working Group, Humanitarian Population Figures, April 2016, available at: www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/documents/files/humanitarianprofilesupportguidance_final_may2016.pdf.

49 See Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, 2016, available at: http://humanitariandisabilitycharter.org; IASC, Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, 2019, available at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/iasc-task-team-inclusion-persons-disabilities-humanitarian-action/documents/iasc-guidelines.

50 See IASC, “Statement by Principals”, above note 38.

51 Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN Doc. A/71/314, 9 August 2016, para. 31, available at: https://daccess-ods.un.org/tmp/895524.546504021.html.

52 Norwegian Refugee Council and Global Protection Cluster, Breaking the Glass Ceiling: A Smarter Approach to Protection Financing, November 2020, p. 6, available at: www.globalprotectioncluster.org/wp-content/uploads/Breaking-the-glass-ceiling-A-smarter-approach-to-protection-financing-report-FINAL.pdf (finding that the protection sector remains significantly underfunded in consolidated appeals relative to most other clusters and recommending, inter alia, that a fixed percentage of organizational funding goes to protection activities).

53 The IASC principals’ Centrality of Protection Statement confers clear responsibility on humanitarian coordinators, HCTs and cluster leads to ensure that protection is central to humanitarian action. See IASC, “The Centrality of Protection in Humanitarian Action: Statement by the IASC Principals”, 17 December 2013, available at: www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/topics/transformative-agenda/document/centrality-protection-humanitarian-action-statement-inter.

54 Somalia HCT, “Humanitarian Country Team Centrality of Protection Strategy 2022–2023”, available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-humanitarian-country-team-centrality-protection-strategy-2022-23.

55 The disability adviser served from April 2020 to March 2021, via standby partner Red R Australia, funded by Australia Assists.

56 On file with author.

57 The Washington Group Questions were developed by the UN Statistical Commission in collaboration with member States. The Short Set focuses on six core domains of functioning: seeing, hearing, walking, cognition, communication, and self-care. Respondents rate their functional difficulty on a four-point scale, from “no difficulty” to “cannot do at all”.

58 On file with author.

59 SIDA, above note 11, p. 1 (stating that “[p]ersons with disabilities and elderly have great difficulty in accessing humanitarian aid. Persons with disabilities remain excluded from the most essential services in emergencies and are left behind in refugee camps. There are however efforts by the international community to do something about this in the various clusters”).

60 The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) determines the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, as well as acute malnutrition in a country. The aim is to arrive at a consensus-based figure of the level of food insecurity in a geographic area. See IPC, “IPC Acute Food Insecurity Classification”, available at: www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/ipc-overview-and-classification-system/ipc-acute-food-insecurity-classification/en/.

61 See e.g. Trinity College Dublin and World Food Programme, Inclusive Accountability to Affected Populations: Mainstreaming Accessible Communication for Vulnerability-Based Targeting in Mozambique, 2022, available at: www.tcd.ie/slscs/research/assets/images/AccessibleMozambique.pdf. This paper discusses a pilot on inclusive community engagement which conducted messaging on assistance by using supported communication formats for people with communication disabilities, who are generally the most marginalized and excluded. The paper concludes that “[b]y prioritizing inclusion as a starting point, rather than an add-on, the result was increased access for all”.

62 UN Accountability Project – Somalia, above note 32, p. 43.

63 C. Bennett and M. Foley, above note 30, p. 35.

64 A. Medinilla, L. Tadesse Shiferaw and P. Veron, above note 28, p. v (noting that “the ‘triple nexus’ between humanitarian aid, development and peacebuilding has become a commonly used term, especially in the context of the UN reform agenda and the ‘New Way of Working’”.)

65 Ibid., p. i.

66 Ibid., p. iv.

67 S. Dalrymple and A. Thomas, above note 28, p. 8. It was also noted that the core issue is that development and humanitarian actors have different planning cycles for responding to their respective mandates. More specifically, development cooperation actors tend to plan on the basis of five- to seven-year strategies, often with a more decentralized decision-making structure, whereas humanitarian donors plan on the basis of much shorter time frames.

68 A. Medinilla, L. Tadesse Shiferaw and P. Veron, above note 28, p. vi.

69 S. Dalrymple and A. Thomas, above note 28, p. 38.

70 Somalia National Development Plan 2020–2024, available at: https://andp.unescwa.org/plans/1245.

71 Terms of Reference for Somalia Humanitarian Country Team, February 2022, paras 2.3, 3.2.8. On file with author.

72 C. Devandas-Aguilar, above note 51, para. 78(b).

73 Alexandre Cote, The Unsteady Path towards Meaningful Participation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities in the Implementation of the CRPD and SDGs. A Pilot Study by Bridging the Gap, 2020, p. 21, available at: https://bridgingthegap-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/The-unsteady-path.-A-pilot-study-by-BtG.pdf.

74 UNDIS, indicator 11, available at: www.un.org/en/content/disabilitystrategy/.

75 The UNCRPD, above note 15, considers participation as fundamental to the enjoyment of all rights, framing it as general obligation 4(3), as separate rights (Articles 29 and 30), and in the overall monitoring of the Convention (Article 33(3)). See also A. Cote, above note 73, p. 5 (noting that the “emphasis on participation of persons with disabilities has been a response to their systematic exclusion from consultation and decision-making mechanisms related to design, planning and monitoring of policies, programs and services that affect their lives and their communities”).

76 A. Cote, above note 73, p. 15. The project identified eleven “different stylized forms of interaction which may or may not be qualified as participation”.

77 Ibid., p. 7.

78 Ibid., p. 20.

79 Ibid., p. 44.

80 UNSOM HRPG and UN Human Rights, above note 22.

81 Federal Government of Somalia, National Disability Agency Establishment Act, 2018.

82 Ibid., Art. 5.

83 Site visit by author, 8 December 2021, and subsequent interview with the NDA.

84 See UNICEF, “Module on Child Functioning: Questionnaires”, available at: https://data.unicef.org/resources/module-child-functioning/.

85 Trinity College Dublin has been providing support to UN Human Rights in Somalia since 2021 on disability inclusion issues, particularly in relation to quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.

86 C. Devandas-Aguilar, above note 51, para. 11 (stating that “policy efforts should move away from the charitable and medical approaches towards a human rights-based approach to disability, where persons with disabilities are considered as rights holders, rather than mere receivers of protection, rehabilitation and/or welfare”). See also Peter Uvin, Human Rights and Development, Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT, 2004, p. 54 (recalling Paul Farmer's use of the term “pragmatic solidarity”, which Uvin criticizes as depending too often “on the continued presence of foreigners and foreign money, and it sometimes unintentionally ends up disempowering local dynamics of social change”).

87 A. Medinilla, L. Tadesse Shiferaw and P. Veron, above note 28, p. 3 (noting that “[f]or target communities, the distinction between humanitarian, development and peace and security efforts is artificial”).

88 World Food Programme, “WFP Global Protection and Accountability Policy”, 11 November 2020, available at: https://executiveboard.wfp.org/document_download/WFP-0000119393.

89 O. Abualghaib et al., above note 46, p. 3094.

90 S. Dalrymple and A. Thomas, above note 28, p. 38 (stating that the government in Somalia needs to take on a stronger decision-making role in crisis response in order to reduce dependency on humanitarian aid, but noting that “this remains challenging in the absence of a genuinely inclusive electoral process”).