Somalia: Lower house of parliament passes bill on sexual violence

Somalian lawmakers recently voted in favour of a new bill on rape and sexual offences. The legal position on the crimes had not fundamentally changed in the country since around 1962 with devastating impacts on survivors of sexual violence. Our regional correspondent, Bastian Renoui, met with Sophia Rajab, who has long campaigned for the Somali legislative changes. So this new law is one that has been debated for a very long time. and it is a law that is meant to address sexual violence in somalia essentially and it has been in the books in in negotiations for over a decade i think most importantly is to address sexual violence in 2026 you know sexual violence in the present um one aspect is digital violence because we know there's a lot of technologically facilitated gbv um so this act actually addresses that, which is really, really important. We find that both women and children can be subjected to gender-based violence online. So it really is addressing many forms of sexual violence, including digital violence. And why was it important for Somalia specifically? I think it's important for any country, but Somalia specifically, because there have been rising cases of sexual and gender-based violence. So in order to protect victims and survivors, In order to ensure there's a pathway for justice, it was important that Somalia actually engages in a conversation of expanding legal protections to ensure that there's some sort of accountability for sexual violence. You said that it took a decade of debates. Why? There are areas of the bill that were quite contentious, and it was difficult for people to have a meeting of their minds on. And one of the areas was, for example, the issue of criminalising marital rape. There are some societies who don't believe there's such a thing as marital rape. Once you're married, then as a woman you cannot be raped, which is quite contentious in and of itself, if you think about it. The other area is also to do with children and the question around consent. So that was another area that was heavily debated, because we also know that Somalia has an influx of child marriage. And this is something that is commonly practiced within that community and that society. And some would argue that it is allowed, rather, in religion. And some would say, no, we are adopting a human rights standard. And so once it's implemented, what can be the impact of this law on young girls, women? The impact can be immense. There are quite a number of instances where families will choose to mediate amongst themselves, right, rather than take a matter to court. And so we're encouraging the legal pathway to justice. And it's very important and imperative that all justice actors make sure they reach out to communities, make sure the communities understand their rights and essentially what the law provides for in terms of offenses. and thereafter what steps they need to take in the justice pathway.