Pick our Brains session with Dr. Guleid Ahmed Jama

About the Pick Our Brains Series
The Pick Our Brains sessions of the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights are intended as a forum for intellectual exchange and scholarly discussion. They provide an opportunity to receive feedback on ongoing or forthcoming research, to present recent work or conference contributions, and to explore possibilities for collaboration within and beyond the Centre. Each session combines a short presentation with an open and lively discussion.

Biography
Guleid Ahmed Jama is a lawyer in Somaliland and a guest researcher at Maastricht University, Faculty of Law, Department of International Law, where he earned his PhD in 2024. His PhD focused on the rights of children living in Somaliland, an unrecognised state. He is currently a project lead at a Maastricht University project that studies the rights of children living in de facto states during war and in post-war situations. The research works in three territories: Gaza (Palestine), Nagorno Karabakh (Republic of Artsakh), and Sool/Sanaag (Somaliland). He has been practising law in Somaliland for the last 14 years, co-founded civil society organisations and served as a board member in international and local nongovernmental organisations working on human rights and the rule of law.   

Abstract
In our increasingly globalised and ever-evolving world, the number of actors operating on the international stage has significantly increased. Beyond traditional sovereign states, we now see a growing role for non-state actors and de facto states (in some cases grouped under “non-state actors), entities that, despite lacking formal international recognition, exercise control over territory and populations. These developments require new perspectives in IHL that go beyond the traditional focus on states as the primary actors and subjects of international law. As part of this new perspective, a new set of legal questions needs to be answered – and this will be the focus of this paper. Namely: what is the legal situation under IHL when de facto states are involved in armed conflict? This research analyses the rights of children living in de facto states during and immediately after a war.

The research paper presented seeks answers to the following questions: 

1. How are children’s rights protected under international law for children living in de facto states during war times under IHL, as well as in post-war situations?  
2. (How) does International Humanitarian Law apply to de facto states?  
3. What obligations exist for different actors (international political actors, humanitarian organisations, governments, armed groups) to respect and protect the rights of children living in de facto states during and directly after war under IHL?