Tuesday March 21, 2023
Mogadishu (HOL) - Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed eight bills into law at a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu on Monday night. The bills signed include the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Somali Immigration and Citizenship Agency Establishment Law, the Immigration Law, the Public Data Protection Act, the Law on the Management of Underground Resources, the Investment and Investor Protection Law, the Law on Identification and Public Registration, and the Somali Fisheries Development and Management Law.
During the ceremony, President Mohamud commended the Speakers of the Lower and Upper Houses for their speedy passage of the bills, which he described as the foundation of the Somali government and the implementation of a modern governance system.
In early March, the lower house of Somalia's Parliament overwhelmingly approved a new anti-terrorism law. The legislation aims to provide a legal framework to assist government security agencies in combating and eliminating terrorism in Somalia. However, critics of the bill are worried about its broad definition of what constitutes terrorism, warning that its ratification could give government security agencies excessive and unchecked power.
Human Rights Watch urged President Mohamud to
refrain from signing the bill, warning that it would grant excessive powers to the country's repressive intelligence agency.
Laetitia Bader, the Deputy Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, suggested that the Somali government should not simply approve the extensive powers of the intelligence agency. Instead, the government should limit its authority and promote accountability. Bader called on Somalia's international partners to raise concerns about the bill's problematic provisions and urged the government to revise it to ensure that it upholds human rights and prevents abusive practices by intelligence officers.
Despite concerns about the speed at which the laws were passed, President Mohamud praised the Cabinet and Somali experts for their work on the bills. He stated that the quick approval of so many is a historic achievement, demonstrating the importance of inter-agency collaboration. However, some lawmakers and political analysts have raised concerns about the lack of quorum during the first and second sessions of the current parliament, leading to the cancellations.