CEDAW/C/68/D/79/2014
1.1 The author of the communication is S.J.A., a Somali national born in 1989. She
claims that her deportation from Denmark to Somalia would violate her rights under
articles 3, 5 and 16 (b) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women. The Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto
entered into force for Denmark in 1983 and 2000, respectively. The author is
represented by counsel, Tage Gøttsche.
1.2 The author’s application for asylum was rejected by the Danish Immigratio n
Service on 9 July 2014. The Refugee Appeals Board dismissed the appeal against that
decision on 24 November 2014. She was ordered to leave Denmark by 8 December
2014. On 5 December 2014, the Committee, acting through its Working Group on
Communications under the Optional Protocol, requested the State party to refrain
from expelling the author to Somalia pending the consideration of her case by the
Committee, pursuant to article 5 (1) of the Optional Protocol and rule 63 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure.
1.3 On 10 December 2014, the Refugee Appeals Board suspended the time limit for
the author’s departure from Denmark until further notice, in accordance with the
Committee’s request.
1.4 On 11 November 2015 and 18 February 2016, the Committee denied th e State
party’s requests to lift the interim measures.
Facts as submitted by the author
2.1 The author originates from Ceel Garas, Galguduud region. She arrived in
Denmark in April 2014, seeking to escape a forced marriage to a member of
Al-Shabaab. In December 2013, while she was walking to a school, A.H., a high ranking member of Al-Shabaab, noticed her. Thereafter, he went to her father several
times to ask him to hand over the author for the purpose of marriage. The author ’s
father initially refused and then attempted to delay his final answer. The author did
not want to marry. Consequently, her father began to arrange her escape from Somalia.
The author’s aunt sold some of her land to pay for the author ’s travel.
2.2 On 12 February 2014, A.H. came to the author’s house and forced her to follow
him to the Al-Shabaab headquarters in the town, where she was told that, if she
refused to marry him, he would kill her. The author said that she would think about
it, and A.H. released her. The author ’s parents then organized her departure. She
travelled to her aunt’s house in Dhuusamarreeb and, three days later, fled to Denmark.
She travelled via Ethiopia and Turkey, without travel documents.
2.3
On 24 April 2014, the author arrived and applied for asylum in Denmark.
2.4 On 9 July 2014, the author ’s asylum application was rejected by the Danish
Immigration Service. On 24 November 2014, that decision was upheld by the Refugee
Appeals Board. The Board concluded that the author ’s story and claims lacked
credibility; her explanations and account of specific facts were evasive, unclear and
sometimes inconsistent and appeared to have been fabricated. Consequently, the
Board requested the author to leave the country by 8 December 2014.
2.5 In accordance with the Aliens Act, decisions of the Refugee Appeals Board are
not subject to appeal. The author thus contends that she has exhausted all available
domestic remedies.
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