Somalia Journalist’s Trade Union (FESOJ) attend ILO Conference in Geneva
The Secretary General of National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu represented Somalia in this year’s 107th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, which was officially opened on May 28, 2018 by the Director General of International Labor Organization Mr Guy Ryder.
Delegates from more than 180 countries took part in this year’s conference. Each Member State was represented by a delegation consisting of a government official, an employer delegate and a worker delegate and their respective advisers. NUSOJ attended the meeting in its capacity as a full member of the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU)
The agenda of the ILO Conference included effective ILO development cooperation in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work and a recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of social dialogue and tripartism, under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, 2008
FESTU participated in the workers technical committees conference and also on the sideline of the conference held high level meetings with international workers’ unions which FESTU has close working relationship.
NUSOJ and FESTU are honored to be present at the ILO international conference. One of our aims is to transform our working conditions
and political leaders through social dialogue and put aside the culture of complain accustomed by fake Somali Trade union leaders,” Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu said after
returning back to Somalia from the ILO conference in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, NUSOJ and the Finish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES) will this year be conducting different training’s in Somalia relating to journalist labour rights in order to improve the working environment of media workers and journalists.
“Journalists are not aware of their labour rights and often fall victim to exploitation and corruption. Few journalists are well prepared to avoid security risks in their work. Mainstream media is very male-dominated. Women journalists are discriminated and exploited in many ways,” Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu NUSOJ Secretary General said.
FESTU and NUSOJ are condemning in the strongest terms possible the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Mr Hassan Sharrif Osman who unilaterally wrote a letter to ILO Credentials Committee and nominated fraudulent so called FESTU representatives to be included in the final delegate list of ILO which is surprisingly quite contrary to the official delegates list submitted by His Excellency Salah Jama, Somalia’s Minister of Labour and Social Issues through the right official diplomatic line of Somalia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva led by Her Excellency Ambassador Faduma Abdullahi Mohamud
NUSOJ and FESTU call upon the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Mr Hassan Sharrif Osman to keep away from his continued intervention of the internal affairs of Somali trade unions.
In March 8, 2018 Mr Sharrif the Permanent Secretary wrote another letter to EU Brussels to try to stop EU funding to the legitimate Somali journalist Union, NUSOJ. This is not only criminal but very shameful from a senior government official who instead of acting professionally sought to side with fraudulent representatives due to corruption and also in a bid to create confusion to our international partners.
We appeal to the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia His Excellency Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre to intervene in this matter and bring some sense back into this government official who always tries to interfere in the internal affairs of the Somali Trade Unions, which are trying their best to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duties to serve the interests of Somali journalists.
