A/HRC/13/65 page 18 individuals taken into custody be brought before a judge within 48 hours of arrest. Police officials regularly flout this requirement and judges do normally not challenge them. Journalists are often targets of intimidation and abuse by Government officials. While detention sometimes last only a few hours, the fact remains that Government officials at all levels and the police have, for example, ordered on occasions arrests of journalists in response simply to critical reporting, or to pre-empt such reporting. 71. According to the Minister of Justice, many journalists lacked professionalism and had never studied or got a degree on journalism. It was important that they abide by the rules and regulations governing media ethics. He, however, readily recognized concerns relating to abuses committed by the regional security committees. B. Human rights violations committed by the regional security committees 72. The main problem with the regional security committees was that their acts were, according to a scholar, “based on Siyad Barre’s draconian decrees and not the 1963 law.”4 The 1963 Public Order Law did not grant broad powers of detention and other extraordinary powers to the authorities, expect in a state of emergency. The current Somaliland administration, however, claims that the law makes the security committees legal and gives them the power to detain anyone “seen as a menace to public order”. However, the committees are primarily used not for alleged national security offences, but to deal with ordinary criminal and juvenile cases in order to save the Government the trouble of proving charges in court. 73. It appears to independent expert that the regional security committees are used in some regions of Somaliland as much as or even more frequently than the courts to incarcerate people, including juveniles. During his visit to the Mandhera prison, the expert was shocked to see that a large number of juveniles were in jail at the request of parents who alleged that their children were disobedient, involved with gangs, drank alcohol or were violent. Many were not accused of anything amounting to a criminal offence under the law but were simply sent there by the regional security committees who took decisions based on traditional Somali law, or Xeer. The expert was, in particular, saddened to see a teacher being held in jail to protect him from clan revenge for a murder committed by his cousin who fled to Kenya and was believed to be dead. Although, the expert respects the local culture and tradition, a way must be found to deal with individual and collective fundamental freedoms in compliance with international standards. C. Need for capacity-building 74. The circumstances detailed above underline the importance of capacity-building in Somaliland to improve compliance of law enforcement officials with human rights standards. Training of the police and security forces is particularly necessary, and the expert believes that UNPOS Human Rights Unit could play an important role in this regard, in collaboration with UNDP. The Minister of Interior stressed his Government’s disappointment at the suspension of 4 Ibrahim Hashi Jama, “Public Order Law in Somaliland: Learning the Lessons of Democracy”, December 2004. Available from http://www.somalilandlaw.com/PUBLIC_ORDER_LAW _IN_SOMALILAND_Article.htm.