Lawyers in Somalia
Like in all societies, a lawyer plays an essential role in providing Somalians with advice and council. In the Somalian legal system, called Xeer, a lawyer is referred to as garxajiyaal and assists Somalians who have to face a jury or provide compensation for a crime that they have committed. The Somali Law Council was formed on February 26, 2005 and membership to the council is open to all Somali lawyers around the globe. It is the aim of the council to organize Somali lawyers to work with other Somali professionals in order to rebuild and reconstruct Somalia. It is the goal of each lawyer who is a member of the council to advertise, protect and restore human rights and civil liberties to Somalians. These lawyers seek to create an index of useful and effective laws that will be available for use by the Somalian people. Each lawyer will be responsible for assisting in collecting existing Somali customary laws, as well as Sharia laws in order to create this index. The lawyers who are members of the Somali Law Council seek to provide advice and support to Somali individuals, as well as the Somali government, institution and organizations throughout the country. In 2008, with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program, the first women’s lawyer association was created in Somaliland. It is the goal of this organization to help Somalians, especially men, to recognize the importance of women lawyers to society. It seeks to help women thrive in a male dominated profession. In 2008 there were only five members of the association, with seventeen women set to graduate from the University of Hargeisa the following September. The United Nations has provided grants to help women attend law school, as well as providing financial support and training to the association. When the association was created there was only one practicing female lawyer in Somali, Ifra Aden Omar. Ifra Aden Omar is currently the head of the association that supports women who choose to enter the legal profession.
With the increase in piracy off the shores of Somalia the role of both Somalian and foreign lawyers has become essential to negotiations and the arrangement of ransoms. The Somalian coast is teeming with pirates who took to the seas in order to survive the war and the famine that has overtaken Somalia. They travel up and down the coast, capturing ships and holding the crew and cargo hostage. The crew and cargo will remain hostages until a ransom is paid. In 2009 alone the pirates were responsible for 406 attacks. Lawyers become extremely important tools in ransom negotiation. They are needed in order to carry out communications with pirates themselves, as well as the families of the crew members. Such was the case in February, 2009 when Somali pirates took control of an Industrial Shipping Enterprises tanker. The CEO, James Christodoulou, contacted the lawyers at the firm Seward & Kissel and enlisted their assistance in ransom negotiations. After four months of negotiations the lawyers negotiations paid off and the safety of the crew and the cargo was secured. Lawyers play a vital role not only in our society, but also in Somalian society.