The Foundation organised a five-day workshop in order to assist the Honourable Members of the Committee to critically reflect on their past activities and mandates and discuss future projects and tasks
The Max Planck Foundation organised a five-day workshop for the Judiciary, Religious Affairs and Religious Sites Committee of the House of the People of the Federal Republic of Somalia. The workshop was conducted in Kigali, Rwanda from 18–22 February 2015. Among the participants were the second Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Mahad Abdalla Awad, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Aden Sadiq Mohamed and the Secretary of the Committee, Hon. Mohamed-Amin Hassan Abdullahi.
The workshop was designed to assist the Honourable Members of the Committee to examine their mandates, critically reflect on their past activities and discuss from a comparative perspective future legislative tasks and other activities of the Committee. In particular, the workshop aimed at providing the Honourable Members with the informative background necessary for exercising their role in drafting the Constitutional Court Act and the Organisation of the Judiciary Act.
The workshop addressed a number of crucial and topical issues including the mandate and activities of the Committee, the powers and functions of the Somali Constitutional Court and the Judicial Service Commission, the structure of the judiciary in federal States, the integration of Shari’ah and customary law in the Somali legal system, the Somali Attorney General and the prosecution department in comparative perspective, as well as the coordination of the activities of the Committee with federal institutions, in particular those in the justice sector.
To ensure optimal transfer of knowledge and to facilitate active engagement, the workshop was presented in Somali. During the workshop the Honourable Members of the Committee were able to take stock of their mandate and to critically reflect on their activities. Most importantly, the members were able to foresee their future activities in terms of proposing new laws or amendments to existing laws, overseeing the activities of the executive, and interacting with the public and non-state institutions working in the justice sector.
The workshop is part of the support programme of the Max Planck Foundation to the constitutional review and implementation process of Somalia. The project is funded by the European Union.