Mogadishu, 20 Jan. 2015, (Qalin) - The President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, signed the Convention for the Rights of the Child. Attending the ceremony at Hamar Jab Jab School were Mr Nicholas Kay, Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General for Somalia, Mr Steven
Lauwerier, UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Interim Minister for
Justice Hon Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir, Interim Minister for Women and
Human Rights Hon Khadijo Mohamed Diriye, Interim Minister for
Information Hon Mustaf Sheikh Ali Dhuhulow, Interim Minister for
Agriculture, Abdi Mohamed Bafo and several serving Members of

Parliament.

The Convention of the Rights of the Child was ratified by the Federal
Parliament of Somalia on 13 December 2014. The Convention outlines the
rights of and means to protect children and provides the basis for the
Federal Government of Somalia to realise the rights of all Somali
children. It is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the
world. South Sudan and the United States of America have still to sign
the Convention.

Speaking at the signing, the President said, ‘The ratification and
signing of the Convention of the Rights of the Child means that as
President, and together with the Parliament, we have agreed that the
Federal Government will protect your rights as a child through our legal
system. We have promised you full and equal access before the law. We
have promised to make sure that you never have to become a soldier until
you are old enough to make that decision for yourself. We have promised
to support your families to love and care for you and not to abandon
you, or try to profit from you. We have promised to protect you from
people who may have bad intentions. We have promised that regardless of
whether you are a boy or a girl, you will have equal access to all the
opportunities that life will bring you: to have a good education and to
get a good job. We have promised to respect your right to thinking
independently and to express those thoughts.”

The Federal Government will now work on drafting and adopting child
friendly policies and systems, and implement measures to target child
survival, development, participation and protection, and provide regular
reports on its progress to The Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The President concluded his speech saying, "Any agreement has two
sides. With rights come responsibilities. I want to remind you of your
responsibilities. You are Somali. This is the first thing and it is the
most important thing. You are part of one people, one nation, and
together we are creating one future.

"Look to the future. We cannot allow the past to bind us. If and when
you hear stories about Somalia in the past, you must not be held captive
to that. You must think of the Somalia you want in the future, and then
you must make that happen.”