by ibakarr | Jun 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
The Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL), with support from DFID’s Access to Security and Justice Programme (ASJP), is implementing a 15-month project titled, ‘Promoting Justice and Accountability in Sierra Leone’. The project’s goal is
to promote a fair, accessible and accountable justice system by influencing policy reform and better implementation of existing laws.
Against this backdrop, CARL organised the 1st Quarterly Seminar on the Criminal Justice System, with various stakeholders, including the Sierra Leone Police, Sierra Leone Prisons Service, Law Officers Department, and key non-state actors to discuss the state of the prisons and detention facilities in Sierra Leone, and develop an advocacy tool for the speedy enactment of the Correctional Services Bill.
The seminar highlighted the state of the country’s detention centres and the importance of the Correctional Services Bill. The goal of this Bill, if enacted, is to change the traditional practice of incarcerating offenders without due respect to their fundamental human rights and to ensure that while in detention, inmates are reformed, rehabilitated and reintegrated into society in order to prevent them from re-offending but contributing to the positive development of the state.
The discussions noted the critical challenges and key issues that should be considered in the ongoing criminal justice reforms:
Justice and Security Sectors: For the justice and security sectors, there is limited provision of material resourcesto perform their duties. For instance, the prison is currently experiencing overcrowding, poor detention facilities for women and children. There is inadequacy of recruitment, screening, poor conditions and ineffective trainings of personnel like the police and prisons service. Thus, it is imperative that the state should improve the criminal justice system by providing the necessary capacity in personnel, infrastructure, training and resources to do their work well.
The civil society: In the enactment of laws, there is lack of public participation and contribution. Thus, the civil society advocated a change to this practice, also stressed that the increase in the number of courts and police stations should have a corresponding increase in capacity of all detention facilities.
Participants: The ongoing criminal justice reform initiatives geared toward promoting and ensuring a human rights friendly environment was acknowledged. Significantly, AdvocAID; a civil society organisation mainly working with women in conflict with the law, said the Correctional Services Bill does not make provision for facilities for special case inmates like the physically challenged, and lactating and pregnant women.
Others raised critical issues like the need to have uniform sentencing guidelines for similar crimes; recruitment of more legal professionals in the Law Officers Department; allocation of adequate resources to the justice sector; infrastructural extension of the maximum prison; massive, aggressive public education and advocacy to enhance the knowledge of the criminal offenders; training and capacity building of correctional officers in human rights related issues; proper and effective electronic data management of inmates’ information and ensuring effective input of non-state actors before enactment of the Correctional Service Bill.The main apprehension is that given the complexion of the council, there is the tendency to compromise the independence, integrity and professionalism of the correctional centres.
by ibakarr | Jun 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
It is exactly two years since the Sierra Leone Parliament passed a legal aid law that seeks to address the justice needs of indigent Sierra Leoneans. Following the enactment, the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) and other human rights groups welcomed the law, and described it as “progressive” and “innovative”. CARL also warned that a smooth and effective implementation of the law would require a coordinated and well-resourced implementation schedule developed jointly by the government and its partners. Quite naturally, the government is expected to take the lead on rolling out the implementation strategy by providing resources and coordinating local efforts. Unfortunately, progress towards implementation has been generally slow.
There is high level of poverty in Sierra Leone, which means that there will be huge demands on the legal aid board. The legal aid scheme will invariably be a very expensive project. This perhaps explains why implementation has been somewhat slow. In fairness to the Justice Sector Coordinating Office (JSCO), a government-funded unit which has been coordinating implementation efforts, there have been significant efforts to work with non-state actors to build a strong coalition for implementation. Thanks to such efforts, a few noticeable steps have been taken towards implementation:
First, members of the Legal Aid Board have been appointed and the Chair was recently approved by Parliament. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has asked the JSCO to support the Board until it is fully established. In addition, a full Board meeting has been convened, where sub-committees were set up to work on various issues. Ahead of the composition of the Board, JSCO worked with a number of non-government organisations to develop some tools for the board, including a mapping report and a communication strategy. Two sub-committees, including a Human Resource Committee and the Budget and Implementation Planning, have been set up and have started meeting. These recent efforts somewhat indicate a measure of willingness by the government to support a fully functioning legal aid board. The Board now has a responsibility and an opportunity to build on the current foundation and make legal aid a reality for millions of indigent Sierra Leoneans.
The Board faces immense challenges, and a great deal of efforts would be required to overcome them. In the immediate future, the Board would need to focus on addressing the logistical and funding gaps it faces. It is still not clear whether any financial allocation was made in the 2014 budget for the operations of the Legal Aid Board. The Ministry of Justice might need to either submit a supplementary budget to parliament for approval or slice its meagre budget to support the board, at least for the rest of this year. Government funding will definitely be available at some point, but it won’t be adequate to run a fully functioning legal aid scheme. The Board will need a lot more than government-approved funds to implement its strategy. Raising funds for its operations seems to be one of the natural functions of the current board, which is why it is important that they hire an Executive Secretary with a proven record of fundraising and programme management. A good fundraiser and programme manager would help the board tap into local and international funding opportunities in ways that would make the scheme increasingly less dependent on state funds. For now, though, the government must be willing to take the lead in providing funds. Any further delays would only reinforce public suspicion that government’s commitment is weak.
The board members should understand that public expectation of what they can deliver is massive. The Board, therefore, has the unenviable task of managing public expectation so that the scheme’s performance legitimacy and credibility do not come into question even before it starts work. It is also important that the Board embarks on a deliberate effort of establishing itself as an independent unit capable of delivering a legal aid scheme without excessive dependence on state actors. Excessive dependence on the state, particularly for professional direction, could undermine public confidence in the scheme.
There is genuine public expectation that the legal aid board will ultimately deliver on its mandate, even if most people understand that it will take a while before the board becomes fully functioning. What is important, though, is for the Board to make strong efforts to respond to the numerous challenges it faces at the moment. One of the ways of doing this is to be able to prioritize its interventions based on genuine need and the available resources. Another way is to ensure that the Board is transparent and accountable in the way it administers the scheme and how funds are utilized. To the extent that it can do these on a consistent basis, there can only be huge prospects for success.
Effective implementation of the legal aid law is important not merely because the law says so. There is genuine need for it across the country. At the moment, there are hundreds of inmates in various prisons and detention facilities across the country who do not have access to legal advice or representation. Many attribute the overcrowding at the maximum security prison in Freetown to inability of inmates to pay for legal services. To make a bad matter worse, access to lawyers outside Freetown, in particular, remains a major challenge. There are credible reports of private practitioners either refusing or showing little commitment to represent persons who face serious offences such as murder. The major reason being the paltry amount of remuneration the state provides to such lawyers. The Legal Aid Act was promulgated to provide solutions to such problems.
Indigent Sierra Leoneans have waited enough. They can’t wait much longer for justice. It is important that the Legal Aid Board does not slow down any more. It is imperative that the government provides the much needed resources to support the work of the board. Any further delays in providing the required resources would further raise questions about the state’s commitment to responding to the justice needs of poor citizens, who have suffered enough in a system that hardly protects the poor.
by ibakarr | Jun 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
A baseline survey by TROCAIRE in 2011 singled out the Northern Province of Sierra Leone as a region with high level of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). According to the report, this was in part due to the culture and traditions of the people, which promote masculinity, whereby women and girls are considered as secondary in every local issue. Incidents of wife battery, rape, teenage pregnancy, forced- early female marriage, among others, were commonplace. Focus group discussions and various one-on-one interviews showed that incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence were prevalent. Worse still, the perpetrators escaped justice as there was no mechanism to make them account. Against this backdrop, there was the urgent intervention of several nongovernmental organizations, including TROCAIRE, to help address this social menace.
Since 2007, the Sierra Leone Parliament passed a number of progressive laws aimed at protecting the rights of women as well as ending discrimination against them. Implementing those laws has been one of the greatest challenges, though. As part of efforts to help bridge the implementation gap in those laws and help transform the negative attitudes and behaviours against the women and girls in Bombali District, TROCAIRE partnered with a number of local organisations, including the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) to implement a five-year gender project titled: “Enhancing Access To Justice”. The project essentially seeks to promote and protect the rights of women and girls, while increasing access to justice for SGBV survivors. CARL is currently implementing this project in 12 communities in the Bombali District – communities that are confronted with similar challenges relating to violence and discrimination.
Addressing these challenges required a diagnosis of the inherent cultural beliefs and attitudes of the communities. Unbelievably, there was high level of acceptance of violence among the communities, which accounted for the lack of willingness by community members at all levels to intervene in SGBV-related cases. For most communities, physical, economic and emotional forms of violence was used to implant “discipline” in women, while it was taboo to speak up against sexual violence of any form.
As part of the project’s wide strategy, CARL embarked on massive education aimed at increasing the knowledge of community members regarding the causes, effects and implications of SGBV for women and girls and the future of their communities. The public education programmes took the form of community and media outreach (radio discussions, jingles, town hall meetings and focus group discussions). These sessions provided a unique opportunity of bringing both victims and perpetrators under the same roof to discuss issues, hitherto considered as “no go” areas. Gradually, the project beneficiaries embraced the idea of meeting and discussing those common social challenges. Through these sessions, community members began to proffer solutions to addressing SGBV in their communities.
One of the key approaches used to stem the increase in SGBV and address the negative male attitude towards women is to set up local groups to discuss and develop their own strategy. In Mateneh village, a community that once experienced a high incidence of teenage pregnancy and other forms of sexual violence, local community groups set up by CARL collaborated with the police to successfully prosecute 3 commercial motor cycle riders for rape and sexual penetration. This action was the beginning of a collective effort to stem the wave of teenage pregnancy in the community.
In addition, as part of efforts to strengthen the implementation gap in our laws as well as support the efforts of law enforcement agencies, CARL developed a system that seeks to strengthen local referral mechanisms. Through this system, volunteers were recruited and trained in basic human rights and gender justice laws. Their role is to help minimize incidents of violence through education, and where incidents of violence are alleged to have happened, help the victims to file complaints. These community-based volunteers also help collect data, which is very useful for planning and advocacy purposes. A total of 37 volunteers were recruited and trained, and are resident monitors in the 12 project communities. Essentially their role is to preventing, reporting and following up on SGBV related issues in their communities.
Since their formal establishment, they have been able to earn their communities’ confidence and recognition to an extent that even traditional authorities have come to rely immensely on their energy and commitment to women’s rights issues. These monitors have been uncompromising but peaceful, and the volunteers have helped to keep the discussion about SGBV issues alive, while together helping to promoting accountability and justice for gender-based crimes.
With their presence in each community, the monitors have contributed to strengthening the referral pathways for SGBV, and have made it much easier for victims to step up and complain. Their follow up skills are amazing, and have been able to establish a useful partnership with the local units of the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police. The monitors work with alleged victims from the moment they are informed, follow through the investigation and prosecution, if any.
The monitors have served as an effective conduit for reporting SGBV related cases to the police. Since the start of 2014, the volunteers have helped about 75 cases of various forms violence to be reported to the Family Support Unit, with most of them relating to physical and economic violence. Of the 75 reported cases, 15 relate to sexual offences and 10 of them are currently before the courts. The Court Monitors are also following the proceedings to help enhance the credibility of the process.
Chief Thulley of Makump Bana, one of the project communities, refers to the Monitors as “vigilantes of SGBV”. He has made an undertaking to support them at all times, noting their immense contribution to restore morale sanity to his community. Chief Thulley, like many other chiefs, thinks of these Monitors as “a permanent structure of sanity” in their communities.
by ibakarr | Apr 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
Since the end of Sierra Leone’s civil conflict more than a decade ago, many reforms have been undertaken in order to address some of the underlying institutional weaknesses that contributed to the outbreak of the war. The security and justice sectors have benefitted from a number of reform programmes, thanks in a large part to support from the country’s international development partners. Reform projects for the judiciary have targeted training of judicial and support staff, establishing new court buildings, recruiting additional law officers, strengthening the administrative unit of the judiciary, and clearing a huge list of backlog cases. The local courts, which were previously supervised by the Ministry of Local Government, have now been brought under the direct supervision of the Chief Justice, pursuant to the Local Courts Act 2011. The security sector, particularly the police force, has also benefited from immense investment aimed at transforming the way the institution works. Reform efforts for the police have included the development of a training manual, developing an internal accountability structure, restructuring the operational and command structure of the force, developing a more proactive relationship between the force and local communities. All of these efforts are geared towards giving the police a better image than the one it had in the pre-war years.
Credible reports by both local and international organisations have chronicled the main challenges faced by Sierra Leone’s justice system. The United States Government State of Human Rights Report 2012 identified human rights problems such as abusive treatment by police, arbitrary arrest and detention, and limited access to justice for most citizens. A 2012 Prison Watch report also stated that “As of October 19, 2012 there were 3,870 prisoners, of whom 2,733 had been convicted and 1,137 were in custody awaiting trial. Pademba Road Prison, which was designed to hold 324 prisoners, held more than 1,333 inmates.” Amnesty International’s State of Human Rights Report 2013 stated as follows: “Human rights NGOs noted wide disparities in sentencing patterns from district to district. Sentences imposed were often disproportionate to the offense. Many prisoners served excessively long sentences for noncapital offenses, such as sacrilege (50 years), larceny (25 years), and burglary (45 years). The US Government’s State of Human Rights Report added: “Local civil society organizations attributed the harsh sentencing to the defendants’ inability to pay a fine or bribe. Impunity continued. As in previous years, cases of police brutality and police corruption remained a serious problem. Some police stole from detainees, falsely charged motorists with violations, and accepted bribes from suspects to drop charges or to have their rivals arrested and charged with crimes.
In spite of these efforts, immense challenges persist. The judiciary still faces serious funding constraints. Central government funding to the judiciary is still comparatively very low, amid increasing public perception about undue executive influence over the institution. Although funding to the judiciary slightly rose in 2014, it is still far below what is required to address the persisting challenges that confront the judiciary. The low investment in the judiciary clearly accounts for the paucity of courts and judicial officers across the country. These partially account for the delays in trials as well as the overcrowding in many of the prisons and police detention facilities across the country. Part of the reason for the huge backlog of cases and the overcrowding in detention and prisons facilities across the country is the absence of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism that provides a credible option for resolving many of the petty cases that wind up in the courts. The judiciary is still battling with the public perception gap with respect to the adjudication of bail applications, amid increasing doubts as to how Magistrates and Judges exercise their discretion in approving or rejecting bail applications. The unfettered use of discretionary power in adjudicating bail applications has been criticized by many human rights groups, and has urged more safeguards against violating citizens’ right to liberty. The Criminal Procedure Act amendment bill, which has been in the works for many years, offers a glorious opportunity to amend a number of anomalies in the criminal justice system. This can only be done, of course, if both state and non-state actors work together.
For good measure, security and justice are often times linked together. There are practical benefits of linking the two as a credible judicial system is critical to long term stability and development. At the heart of Sierra Leone’s justice system is the police, which has the primary responsibility of investigating alleged crimes. It also supports the Law Officers Department in prosecution. Sadly, as in almost every part of the world, Sierra Leone police officers are often accused of high-handedness in quelling riots, thus violating the rights of the citizens they are statutorily mandated to protect. While it is not entirely strange for police officers to be accused of human rights violations, it is particularly unhelpful that many of the serious violations committed by personnel of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) since 2007 have either gone unpunished or have been downplayed. The leadership of the police has generally refused to comply with the recommendations of a number of Presidential Commissions and Committees of enquiry to hold alleged perpetrators of violence accountable. While it is easy to blame the leadership of the police, perhaps the political will has also been lacking. The Police Council, the highest decision-making body of the police, is chaired by the Vice President, while the Internal Affairs Minister is the Secretary to the Council. Impunity undermines respect for the rule of law, creates and fuels a cycle of violence. The Sierra Leone Police is not above the law, and must subject itself to the rule of law.
In truth, the Complaints, Discipline and Internal Investigations Department (CDIID) of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) has done a brilliant job over the years in fostering accountability for personnel of the police alleged to have committed various infractions of the law or the SLP’s code of conduct. CDIID proceedings have led to suspensions, dismissals and other forms of disciplinary action against those found culpable. It is worth commending the efforts of the CDIID, but the fact that the disciplinary body is entirely composed of police officers and its proceedings are generally inaccessible to the public, has raised a number of questions about neutrality and the possibility of shielding some people from facing justice. There are a number of ongoing initiatives to address the growing impunity gap in the police by, among other things, establishing an Independent Police Complaints Board. The regulations have been approved, and the Chairperson of the Board approved. Once the Board is set up and fully functioning, it is expected that it will address the impunity gap in the Sierra Leone Police force.
To contribute to these efforts at addressing these perennial challenges, the ASJP has approved a grant totalling £155,000 over a period of 18 months to the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law to undertake an evidence-based advocacy on a number of issues. Specifically, the project seeks to work with the SLP to monitor complaints with the CDIID, highlight progress made in resolving those complaints, and identify persisting challenges. Among other things, the project seeks to monitor the existing accountability structures within the Sierra Leone Police to determine how responsive, fair and accessible they are by analysing documents and monitoring police stations.
In addition to police accountability issues, the project also seeks to utilize credible data through strategic advocacy to help bring about policy, legal and institutional reforms as well as address the implementation gaps in the laws. The project’s advocacy efforts will focus on specific aspects of the justice and security system and how these aspects affect the ability of the system to deliver justice fairly and effectively. The project will keep tabs on any policy, legal and institutional reforms that occur at the national level, and ensure wider circulation of such reforms through CARL’s community and outreach programmes.
This project is about helping Sierra Leonean authorities to address these challenges in ways that ensure immense public participation.
by ibakarr | Apr 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
When the Sierra Leone Parliament passed the Legal Aid Act in May 2012, the law was hailed by human rights groups as one of the most progressive laws on the continent and, as a major step forward in the country’s collective efforts at addressing the justice needs of indigent Sierra Leoneans. In the absence of a permanent, nationwide, credible legal aid scheme, the law was meant to provide support in both civil and criminal cases. The law also creates a public-private partnership between government and non-state actors in providing justice services to particularly indigent Sierra Leoneans. Accordingly, it provides that paralegals will be assigned to every chiefdom across the country, and will be responsible for providing information about the relevant law and legal processes, legal education to Paramount Chiefs and inhabitants of the chiefdom, as well as referring and diverting cases to legal practitioners and the formal justice system. The presence of trained paralegals in these communities would help raise public awareness about the laws as well as resolve civil cases that would have otherwise been tried in the courts.
The Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) welcomed the law soon after it was passed, describing it as “progressive.” CARL also warned that developing a coordinated implementation schedule by the Sierra Leone Government together with local and international partners, as well as devoting significant amount of resources would be critical to a successful implementation. Nearly two years since the law was promulgated, implementation has stuttered. In fact, some would say the government has not made any significant effort at implementing the law. There’s a bit of positive news, though. With funds from the DFID-funded ENCISS project, the Justice Sector Coordinating Office (JSCO) and rights-based organisations in the country have partnered to do the spadework for the Legal Aid Board. First, the JSCO partnered with a working group of local and international organisations to undertake a mapping survey of all organizations involved with the provision of legal aid services, including those that provide paralegal services. Furthermore, a consultant was hired by the JSCO to develop a communications strategy that seeks to promote uniformity in messaging of legal aid-related services. The strategy would advise the Board regarding the local media landscape, and how to utilize resources to optimize output from media activities. The strategy is useful to both the Board and other partners involved in the implementation of the legal aid law. The JSCO also led efforts at ensuring that members of the Board have been nominated by the various member-contributing institutions, each of whom has now been officially appointed by the President.
These are laudable efforts, but the major part of the job has not been done. The state needs to set aside the required resources to set up the Board. The Justice Ministry should take the lead on this, and there is no doubt that local and international support will be available to the Board. At the moment, very little is being done to implement the law. Meanwhile, many indigent Sierra Leoneans still receive either poor quality justice or no justice at all. The Constitution guarantees citizens who come in conflict with the law the right to legal representation, but most of them cannot afford the fees for legal services. In addition, access to lawyers outside Freetown remains a major challenge. There is abundant evidence about the lack of willingness by private practitioners to represent accused persons facing serious offences such as murder. Perhaps the major reason is the paltry amount of remuneration the state is willing to pay. The Legal Aid Board could help provide a solution. It is also exciting to think of the numerous benefits paralegals can add to our collective efforts at improving human rights and providing practical and affordable justice for Sierra Leoneans.
Paralegals provide a safety net for low-income earners, children, veterans, persons with disabilities and victims of sexual and gender-based violence in the administration of and access to justice. The legal aid scheme and paralegals in particular, play a critical role in narrowing the gaps of social inequality; and legal aid is as much an integral part of the justice system and the maintenance of the rule of law as Judges, Magistrates, the Law Officers’ Department and courtrooms are. This reaffirms the need for a supplementary budget by the Government of Sierra Leone to provide additional funding to the judiciary to cover the Legal Aid Board, and for the government to take on greater responsibility in enhancing sustainable legal aid throughout the country in both civil and criminal matters.
Again, the Sierra Leone Government has the primary responsibility of ensuring that the law is implemented. There is immense good will on the part of local and international organisations to help, but the government must take the lead. It is, therefore, disappointing that nearly two years after the law was passed, the Ministry of Justice failed to allocate funds in both the 2013 and 2014 budgets for the setting up of the Legal Aid Board. There is no doubt that the state faces competitive priorities, but unlike some of those priorities, justice needs cannot wait. Any undue delay in delivering justice could water down its quality and diminish its otherwise positive effect on the beneficiaries.
At the moment, there are hundreds of detainees crammed in the maximum security prison in Freetown, and many more in the provinces. Many of them are only there because at the time of their arrests, they did not have access to legal representation. Sadly, since the law was passed two years ago, many more people have been arrested and incarcerated illegally, and have not had access to lawyers. Something can be done about it! This was why the legal aid law was promulgated. It is therefore important that the Sierra Leone government shows a clear commitment to implementing a law that was embraced not only by non-state actors, but even the government.
It must also be emphasised that efforts at addressing the unmet needs of people most in need of legal assistance and representation must not be left to the government and legal aid institutions alone. The judiciary, the Law Officers Department, the Bar Association, the police, and community-based advocacy organizations across the country should all jump on the band wagon to improve opportunities and provide assistance for people who cannot afford or do not have access to high quality legal representation, or any representation at all. After all, justice cannot be said to be done and the justice system cannot be seen to be efficiently working unless everyone–rich or poor, child or adult, far or near, abled or disabled–has adequate representation.
Any further delays in providing the required resources would further raise questions about the government’s commitment to enhancing the rights of citizens and protecting the millions of indigent Sierra Leoneans. The time for genuine action is now!
