Sexual and gender based crimes are some of the menaces threatening human security in Sierra Leone as a result of the 11 years civil war that tore the country apart. During the war, women and girls were raped, sexually assaulted and tortured and intimidated through with weapons such as guns, sticks, machetes, etc. by all the fighting factions involved in the war. After the war, these crimes became more common and persistent, with the perpetrators in most cases going unpunished. The impunity gap became so wide that incidents of Sexual and gender based violence continue to increase drastically in the country as a whole. Access to justice for victims of these crimes is could be described as grossly stifled but for the increasing efforts of CARL and other partners fighting for the protection and advancement of the rights of vulnerable groups.
In an effort to combat this menace in our society, the government of Sierra Leone has passed a lot of laws, prominent among which are what are referred to as the Three Genders Acts passed in 2007, to promote parity between men and women; the Child Right Act 2007, to promote the rights of the child; and the Sexual Offences Act 2012, with a view to providing more legal protection for women and girls to overcome sexual violence, intimidation, indecent assault, as well as to advance accountability for perpetrators of such crimes.
In order to compliment the effort of the government, Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL-SL) has taken the fight against sexual gender based violence to Kambia District, with support for the Secretary Global Women Issues (SGWI) funded by American Embassy, to hold perpetrators of sexual gender-based crimes accountable, to reduce the prevalence of sexual gender based violence and enhance access to justice for victims of such violations. CARL has carried out a number of activities aimed at ascertaining the level of sexual and gender based violence prevalence, public attitude towards women’s rights and access to justice in the local courts. The outcome of these effort shows that there is need to transform social and cultural norms, rebuild community structures and support systems, and strengthen the capacity of justice service providers such as the local court, to ensure that they conform to international human rights standards. In order to sustain the project in Kambia, CARL employs the services of some of the beneficiaries to serve as community monitors.
This way CARL was able to operate in three Chiefdoms namely- Magbema, Gbilleh Dixing and Masungbala and in twelve (12) communities in Kambia District communities. Forty-two (42) volunteers received training in different skills that relate to preventing and responding to sexual and gender based violence. These skills include advocacy, mediation, intervention, and training on the four gender laws, namely; the Domestic Violence Act, the Devolution of Estates Act, the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act, plus the Sexual Offences Act and other human rights issues. At the end of the training, 30 persons were encouraged to serve as community-based monitors and 12 court monitors (inclusive of the Local Court and the Magistrate Court) in their respective communities.
These monitors helped staff to conduct video screening on the Gender Laws during the outreach sensitisation in their communities. This in turn allows community members to report on issues affecting them on SGBV and human rights related problems to the monitors, who in most case assist them to access justice by filling complaints to the Family Support Unit (FSU) in Kambia Town. The community based monitors work in collaboration with the local authorities in their respective communities as they have been able to refer cases to the FSU through the aim of the Paramount Chiefs and Local authorities in their different communities. A case at hand presently involves the son of the chief in one of our target communities, who allegedly sexually penetrated an 8-year old girl. The chief himself notified the community based monitors about the incident and informed them that during the outreach session he learnt that he was not supposed to mediate on such a case. He then handed over the accused to the monitors who later helped the victim file a complaint with the police and currently the alleged perpetrator is helping the FSU personnel with their investigation.
CARL’s intervention in our targeted communities in Kambia District has helped community members, especially women and girls, to know about the laws and how to seek redress when their rights are being violated. With the help of the monitors, the community members are very cooperative and willing to minimize incidents of SGBV in their communities by willingly coming out to file complaints, though there are a few challenges along the line. For example, a case of sexual penetration was filed to the police involving a 35-year old man who sexually penetrated an 8-year old girl. The matter was referred to the FSU in Kambia and the victim was given a form to take to the government hospital for examination, treatment and report. Unfortunately for the victim , the Community Health Officer that was in charge asked the parents of the victim to pay a sum of Le 150,000 before administering treatment. It took the intervention of CARL’s Coordinator for the victim to be taken to the theatre. Later, the victim’s father was asked to buy drugs for his daughter, which he could hardly afford. This is not an isolated case because during our outreach session in the communities, a lot of issues were raised concerning the free treatment (or the lack of it), that SGBV victims are entitled to.
On this note, CARL would like to draw the attention of the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affair to the issue of free treatment and report for victims of SGBV as stated in Section39 of the Sexual Offences Act 2012. CARL is aware of the fact that the Ministry and its development partners have developed a document called the National Referral Protocol on Gender-Based Violence, which is an agreement of cooperation among the respective ministries of the government of Sierra Leone to ensure an effective response to and coordination of service for victims of SGBV. It will please CARL if this document is disseminated to the various institutions and implemented accordingly, as this will enhance access to justice for victim of SGBV.