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  The UNIQUE Case for the International Recognition of

the Republic of Somaliland

This page will be updated shortly as SOMALILAND marks in 2011 twenty (20) years of the reassertion of its sovereignty and over 130 years of its national identity

The Republic of Somaliland re-asserted its sovereignty in May 1991 after a thirty year union with neighbouring Somalia which culminated in a long civil war and genocidal attacks on the people of Somaliland.  Somaliland is not a region which has ceded from a country, but is a state, which was, for a brief period in 1960  an independent country  known as the STATE OF SOMALILAND but hastily h united voluntarily with another state (Somalia) and then  ended that union, albeit unilaterally, in 1991.   The following documents set out in more detail the case for recognition of the Republic of Somaliland and, in the articles and materials in this page, we provide  further relevant information about Somaliland’s statehood, national identity and quest for international recognition.

More TO FOLLOW   ...

• Leaflet by UK Somalilanders (May 2011).
• Statement: of the Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs to the international community ( 18 May 2011).

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For more information on this topic, please visit:     http://www.sirag.org.uk

Submissions by Somalilanders:

• Statement of the Somaliland Foreign Minister - 18 May 2011
• The case for Somaliland Recognition: Somaliland Government’s Published submissions: 2001 Booklet: Demand for Somaliland Recognition  (pdf file)  
• Somalilanders’ submissions on recognition: SNM Executive Committee Paper 2000 
• Somaliland Forum Submission 2001 
• A short briefing paper:  Does Somaliland have a legal ground for seeking international recognition? By A H NUR, April 2011

Independent Legal Views/Papers:

• Carroll and Rajagopal, The case for the independent statehood of Somaliland, American University Journal of International Law & Politics, Vol. 8:653,  1993.
• When is a state a state? the case for recognition of Somaliland: A.K.Eggers (2007), Boston College International & Comparative Law Review, Vol 30:211
• Roethke P (2011) The Right to Secede under International Law, Journal of International Service Fall 2011, p.35

List of Relevant theses:

Independent Views and Articles

• June 2011: African Game Changer? The Consequences of Somaliland’s International (non) Recognition, Brenhurst Foundation Paper 2011/05 (http://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/)
• Somaliland: On the Road to Independent Statehood? J. Peter Pham, Ph.D. 13/12/2007
• Somaliland: The Little Country that Could David H Shinn November 2002

African Union (AU, previously OAU) and Somaliland

• Somaliland: Time for an African Union Leadership - International Crisis Group (ICG) Africa Report No.110 23 May 2006.
• A Void of Governance: The AU slow to act in failed states - Aly Verjee in Measuring Regionalism Jan/Feb 2006