OPR investigates conditions in Mogadishu's prisons and detention facilities, interviews the people held in them, and publishes what it finds. Every report is sourced, dated, and kept online.
In ten weeks this summer, at least ten journalists were arrested, beaten, abducted, or imprisoned across six Somali cities — each for reporting on something those in power did not …
Somalia’s prison system remains one of the least examined yet most critical components of the country’s justice and security sector.
In Somalia’s fractured justice system, being from a minority community is itself a risk factor for wrongful arrest, coerced confession, and conviction. OPR’s field investigation do…
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, open with the following provisions.
Somalia ratified the Convention against Torture in 1990 but has failed to implement a single one of its recommendations. The Somali Penal Code contains no definition of torture and no provision for it
In 2016, Somalia went through a significant transformation as it shifted into a Federal State consisting of six Federal Member States: Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland, Southwest State, and t
As of 2016, Somalia became a Federal State with six Federal Member States, including Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland, South West State, and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland. When tal
Conditions in many prisons are, in short, so deficient as to constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, violating article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On June 25, 2026 — seventy-four days after her arrest — Sadiyo Bajaaj was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for posting a video criticizing the President. This is no…
In December 2018, Somali authorities held a public ceremony, declared Godka Jilacow closed, and promised to transform it into a training academy. The ceremony was attended by senio…
As the world marks Mental Health Awareness Month, thousands of people with mental health conditions in Somalia remain invisible, neglected, and trapped inside prisons where treatme…
In a restaurant in the heart of Mogadishu, three journalists sat down for a meal. They did not finish it.
Nine in ten journalists detained in Somalia are never brought to court and are released without charge. This is not a justice system struggling to function. It is a system delibera…
Enforced disappearance in Somalia has never been criminalized as a specific offence. No individual has ever been prosecuted for conducting, ordering, or concealing one. Impunity is…
OPR publishes work by outside contributors on prisons, detention, and justice in Somalia — researchers, lawyers, former detainees, families. Pseudonyms are accepted where safety requires it.