CEDAW/C/75/D/108/2016
2.9 Two days later, however, the author’s uncle arrived in Eel Baraf, accompanied
by several members of Al-Shabaab. They shot and wounded her husband with a gun.
Subsequently, the author understood that her husband had been hospitalized in
Mahaday. At the time, the author had been working in the fields, and the farmers
agreed to hide her. Therefore, when the author’s uncle searched the house, he did not
find her. The author’s father-in-law arranged for her transportation to Halgen, where
she stayed with one of his friends.
2.10 The author’s father-in-law then arranged for her to travel to Ethiopia. While she
was there, her father-in-law informed her that her uncle was still looking for her and
had found out that she was in Ethiopia. 1 The author left Ethiopia by plane on
18 August 2014, as arranged by an agent paid by her father-in-law. She arrived in
Denmark on 19 August 2014 and immediately applied for asylum.
2.11 On 20 August 2015, the Immigration Service of Denmark rejected the author’s
asylum application. That decision was confirmed on 17 November 2015, on appeal,
by the Refugee Appeals Board.
2.12 The author was in contact with her husband through an acquaintance, using
social media. In the course of their exchanges, he informed her that, after her
departure, he had fled as well, and her uncle had killed his father.
Complaint
3.1 The author claims that the facts as submitted reveal a violation of her rights
under articles 1 and 2 (d), read in conjunction with article 2 (e) and (f), of the
Convention. First, she was subjected to domestic abuse, controlling behaviour and
degrading treatment in her uncle’s house. Second, she was forced to marry a much
older man as compensation for a death caused by her cousin. The author refers to the
Committee’s general recommendation No. 19 (1992) on violence against women and
general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee
status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, noting that her past experience
amounts to gender-based discrimination, because her liberty and integrity were not
respected. In Somalia, she was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and,
repeatedly, domestic violence, contrary to articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. If
returned there, with no male support network, she will be at risk of inhuman and
degrading treatment. 2
3.2 The author claims that domestic violence and a lack of protection therefrom are
widespread in Somalia. Because her uncle’s clan is powerful, she has no prospect of
success in obtaining protection from the authorities. The author refers to a number of
reports 3 containing background information showing that women remain
subordinated to men in Somalia and that domestic and gender-based violence remain
prevalent and unsanctioned there.
3.3 Accordingly, in the light of the author’s past experience and the risk of her being
subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in the future, against which she would
__________________
1
2
3
20-05121
No date specified. The author does not provide information on how exactly she travelled to
Ethiopia.
In this connection, the author quoted the judgment in the case R.H. v. Sweden (application
No. 4601/14), in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a single woman in
Mogadishu with no male support network would be at risk of inhuman and degrading treatment.
Such as Human Rights Watch, World Report 2015; Swedish Migration Agency, report on women
in Somalia (2014); Home Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
“Country information and guidance: Somalia – women fearing gender-based harm and violence”,
version 3.0 (London, 2016); and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing Southern and Central
Somalia (Geneva, 2014).
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