Somali Judge Who Sentenced Pirates, Traffickers Is Assassinated

Today is a sad day for human rights and a victory for pirates. And not the funny, grog-swilling eye-patch wearing pirates, the real kind of pirates who kill people. Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aware, a Somali judge who took a stand for justice by sentencing pirates, human traffickers, and Islamist insurgents was assassinated today outside a mosque in Bosasso, Somalia. The region where Judge Aware was shot is only partially controlled by the Somali government, and it is on a well-traveled human trafficking route that smuggles Somali and other East African people into Yemen to be exploited in forced labor or prostitution. His story is a reminder of the dear price some human rights champions pay.

Throughout his career as a judge, Aware sentenced hundreds of human traffickers and smugglers to jail in Somalia. He also sentenced pirates and other organized criminals to long prison sentences. In a country where corruption and bribery are not uncommon, standing up to powerful criminal gangs in this way was both rare and a true act of courage. Corruption of officials like judges, police officers, and local leaders is one of the largest facilitators of human trafficking world-wide. Aware was a man who existed outside that corruption.

Friends and family of Aware think he was killed by gangs of pirates or human traffickers. He was in fact shot in a region of Somalia where human trafficking flourishes, and where traffickers and their networks control much of the infrastructure. Bosasso is on the tip of Somalia which juts out into the Persian Gulf, a short boat ride from Yemen. This corridor is often used to traffic African workers to the Middle East.

Perhaps one of the saddest parts of this ordeal is that Aware's case is far from unique in the world.

Every day, men and women are killed because they refuse to cooperate with organized criminals or corrupt officials. They refuse to give their daughter to a man to rape. They refuse to take a bribe to let the boat full of undocumented workers pass by them. They refuse to buy rice from the man they know steals children to work in the fields. For millions of people living in places like Somalia where rule of law is patchy to nonexistent, standing up for justice may be a situation of life and death.

Today, a judge in Somalia laid down his life to bring human traffickers to justice and prevent them from enslaving more people. What will you do today?

Photo credit: Monica's Dad