Follow a meeting held by Somali lawyers in London the 9 th of October 2004 , has been agreed to form a non profit international association, named “International Somali Lawyers' Association”.

The membership is open to all the Somali Lawyers around the world.

After a long discussion among the participants of the meeting, it has been agreed and proposed the aims and objectives of ISLA, as follows:

To re-organize all Somali Lawyers scattered around the world and bring them all under one umbrella.

To facilitate contacts and exchange of views between Somali Lawyers and the Lawyers associations of all countries and to foster understanding and goodwill among them;

To work side by side with all other Somali professionals for the reconstruction of Somalia ; and to restore, defend and promote human rights and liberties in legislation and in practice;

To collect all Somali laws and regulations issued before and after the outbreak of the civil war;

To undertake and facilitate research activities on both the Somali law and the Shari'ah, to hold seminars and to publish the results of any such research;

T o support the Somali communities in their legal needs, with the aim of fostering their integration into the countries they are living in;

To provide advice to any governmental and non governmental, national or international organizations, concerning about Somali written and customary law.

Finally, these lawyers has been appointed as executive committee:
Dr. Dahir Hassan Abdi, Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Darman Ali, Secretary, Dr. Abukar Hassan Ahmed, Co-ordinator, Dr. Abdullahi Mohamed Maah, Drs. Khadija Mohamed Shire and Dr. Ahmed Ali Salah.

The committee, shall prepare and organize the general assembly meeting to be held in London before February 2005.

The Official address of the association will be: 84 B High Street , Southall, Middlesex, London , UB1 3DB

The Association is calling all Somali lawyers around the world to join and contact the association through the following e-mail address: [email protected] .