Deqa Yasin

Deqa Yasin Hagi Yusuf was born in Somalia.

She relocated to Toronto, Canada. At the end of 2012, requested for a year’s leave from her job in Toronto. On her return to Somalia, she helped her mother’s non-governmental organisation, IIDA Women’s Development Organisation, a civil society organisation promoting peace building, women’s empowerment and human rights in Somalia since 1991. In 1991 she was involved in both women's empowerment and human rights as the Operations Manager for the IIDA Women's Development Organisation.[1]

Yasin came to notice as the Deputy Chair of the Federal Indirect Election Implementation Team (FIEIT). She played a central role in increasing women’s representation to 25% in both houses of parliament in Somalia. Soon after the elections were held in February of 2017, she played a pivotal role in the handover and transition of the incoming government.

There is a school named after a former, and assassinated, Somali minister named Qamar Aden Ali. Yasin announced that is was to be renovated in November 2018.[2]

Yasin became in 2019 the minister for women and for human rights.[3] She sees this as a time of change for women as they will be able to participate in the first one-person one vote election in Somalia in 2020/2021.[4]

It was during H.E. Deqa Yasin’s tenure, that the MoWHRD conducted a Rapid Assessment of the Status of Children with Disabilities in Somalia, released on 28 September 2020. This assessment reviewed the current situation of children with disabilities in the four Somali cities, namely, Mogadishu, Galkayo, Baidoa, and Kismayo. The assessment aimed to inform the efforts to strengthen interventions on the rights of children with Disabilities in Somalia. In carrying out this Assessment, the MoWHRD sought to understand the key barriers to the participation of children with disabilities in society, including their access to the services they are entitled to enjoy.

In addition to the above, in October 2020, her Ministry also carried out a rapid assessment of drug and substance abuse among children in street situations in Somalia.

Yasin led to the development of the Somali Women’s Convention in March 2019.

Significant progress was made in the implementation of the 2016 Universal Periodic Review recommendations. These include the fulfilment of Somalia’s human rights reporting obligations, specifically in the submission of the CRC initial State Party report, and the submission of Somalia’s State Party Report on the Convention against Torture (CAT) that was overdue by almost thirty years and the submission of the mid-term review report for the Universal Periodic Review detailing progress in the implementation of the recommendations. The State Party reported on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) had been finalized and would be submitted shortly to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Civil society organizations delivered human rights trainings on different schematic areas for marginalized and minority groups, persons with disabilities, increasing human rights awareness and education in local communities.

In response to COVID-19, the Office of the Puntland Human Rights Defender advocated for the release of low-risk prisoners due to the increased vulnerability to the disease. 194 prisoners from four prison facilities were released.