Research Scholarships

 Description of research scholarships program

While EAJ conducts its in-house research to support the design and adjustment of its programming approaches and activities, it has always deemed support to Somali academia an important approach to foster the voices of Somali justice and legal scholars. Inputs from Somali academia into the country’s justice sector reform can provide culturally and contextually relevant approaches to aiding people in solving their grievances. It can help nurture in-country thinking about context-relevant understanding of the justice sector, as well as make support to women, marginalized and vulnerable groups in accessing justice in Somalia’s legally plural scenario more targeted.

Especially Somali scholars can be important thought leaders in how to enable broader access to justice, and they can be the drivers of debates around the performance of justice actors and institutions, as well as norms that best help people achieve the kind of justice that serves them best.

With this in mind, EAJ has been issuing calls at universities in Hargeisa, Mogadishu and Baidoa. The call for proposals was directed to Somali academics, researchers and students to submit proposals for short research pieces on a selected ‘Access to Justice’ topic. Successful applicants have received a research grant and have been submitting research papers on their selected topics to the EAJ. The EAJ Research Team has been providing support in the finalization of the papers, and is proud to showcase some of the research outcomes publicly, on its website, as well as showcasing the researchers.

The EAJ hopes that presented research pieces will contribute to a public debate on access to justice issues, and will showcase the capacities and interests of Somali academics. We sincerely hope that this can be a step to bring academic insights closer to practitioners in the Rule of Law and Access to Justice field and allow for the development of some Somali-born ideas and approaches on how to grant everyone access to fair justice.

The choice of language of the research product was left to the respective researchers, some have decided to write in Somali and some in English. Since the EAJ aims to encourage local debates and processes, it has decided to leave the papers in their original language, as it makes them accessible to different audiences.

In Somali

Balaadhinta Adeegyada Marin-Uhelida Cadaalada (EAJ) Taxanaha Cilmi Baadhista waxay dhiirigelisaa isweydaarsiga fikradaha ku saabsan caddaaladda gudaha Soomaaliya waxayna faafiyaan natiijooyinka baaritaanka. Qorayaashu waa aqoonyahanno gaar ah oo ka kala socda Somaliland, Puntland, iyo Koonfurta iyo Bartamaha Soomaaliya.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in research products are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the EAJ.

Aragtiyada la muujiyay waa kuwa qorayaasha mana ahan inay matalaan aragtiyada EAJ.

Publication 11: Socio-Cultural Practices, Peace Building and Leadership of Women in South Central Somalia

  Complex conflicts and humanitarian disasters continue to devastate communities around the world as well as impede the development and well-being of countries. Usually, women are the ones who suffer the most harm from these crises by bearing the brunt of violence and paying a larger price for the destruction. 

Publication 10: Sharia Law, Women’s Rights on Access to Justice in Somalia

 In Somalia, despite unmet justice needs transcending across both men and women; the form of these demands augments Somali women’s experiences of adversity, exclusion, discrimination, and violence. Most of the issues Somali women experience are similar to those faced by women in several war and post-conflict nations.