Tag Archives: Somalia
13 September 2013
Nicholas Kay, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, while briefing the UN Security Council on the Secretary-General’s most recent report on the situation in Somalia, stated that the agreement between Somaliland and Somalia on shared management of airspace ‘could be a model for other areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.’ In July 2013, Somalia and Somaliland agreed to establish a joint committee to manage air traffic control and equitable revenue sharing.
Source: UN News Centre | UN Envoy: with Somalia on verge of 'great things,' more international assistance needed to secure gains
Source: SABAHI | Somalia, Somaliland region to form joint airspace control committee
1 June 2013
The European Court of Human Rights declared inadmissible a complaint brought against Italy and the Netherlands of an asylum seeker whose transfer to Italy was ordered by the Dutch authorities pursuant to the EU Dublin Regulation (Mohammed Hussein a.o. v the Netherlands and Italy). The Court’s rigorous scrutiny of the treatment of asylum seekers in Italy suggests that it aimed to set a standard for similar cases.
After the European Court had declared the intra-EU transfer of an asylum seeker to Greece in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in January 2011 (the case of M.S.S., see also here), litigation in several Member States shifted to other allegedly unsafe countries for asylum seekers, in particular Italy. Some NGOs highlighted failures in the Italian protection system and advised to refrain from deporting asylum seekers to Italy (see here and here). (more…)
19 October 2012
After two years of difficult proceedings, a German Court in Hamburg held 10 Somali nationals responsible for extortionate kidnapping and attacking sea transportation under German criminal law. The Somalis had hijacked the German freighter Taipan in 2010, which was freed by Dutch special forces. The process raises questions as to the appropriate legal framework to address issues of modern piracy.
Source: Sky News | Germany convicts seven Somali pirates
Source: Der Spiegel | Urteil im Hamburger Piratenprozess
16 May 2012
Following the decision taken on 23 March 2012 by the Council of the European Union to allow the EU Naval Force to take disruptive action against known pirate supplies on the shore, EU forces destroyed pirate equipment on the Somali coastline. The EU’s ATALANTA mission at the Horn of Africa has been in the headlines regarding trials against captured Somali pirates in several domestic courts across Europe.
Source: EU NAVFOR | EU Naval Force Delivers Blow Against Somali Pirates On Shoreline
9 December 2011
On 11 November 2011 a German administrative court in Cologne decided that Germany violated the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment (Articles 3 ECHR and 7 ICCPR) by transferring Somali pirates captured by the German fregate “Rheinland-Pfalz” in the framework of the EU anti-piracy mission ATALANTA to Kenya. The German court rejected two other claims by plaintiffs that the capture and detention on the “Rheinland-Pfalz” were in violation of international and German constitutional law.
Decision (in German): link