Background[1]
Sierra Leone has less than 200 practicing lawyers, almost exclusively deployed in the capital city, and a population of over five million predominantly dispersed in rural areas. Seventy percent of the population are unable to access the formal justice sector[2] which was virtually destroyed during the bloody decade-long civil conflict. The country’s informal/traditional justice sector, to which the majority turn, is plagued with perennial problems of abuse of authority, corruption and overreach.
Sonkita Conteh Esq
In the face of these challenges, lack of access to justice, in both the formal and traditional sectors is a lived reality for many, particularly the poor and marginalised. Opportunely, the government and civil society are now teaming up to address the problem of lack of access to justice. In its justice sector reform strategy[3] the government made the provision of ‘primary justice’ i.e. justice at the community level, a priority and identified as crucial, the need to make ‘alternative systems for delivering justice’ function properly and effectively with emphasis on strengthening supervision of these alternative mechanisms.[4] Perhaps of utmost significance is the recognition by the government that partnership with civil society on both the supply and demand sides of justice is crucial to attaining its objectives. Hopefully, this move will ensure that the resources of civil society will be deployed alongside available state resources in a strategic manner to meet the justice needs of the people.
Partners in justice
Partnership between the government and civil society is envisaged on two fronts. On the supply side, civil society and the government will undertake capacity building training for chiefs at the community level to ensure among others that these local authorities understand the scope of their authority and not exceed their jurisdiction, women and juveniles in conflict with the law are given a fair hearing and that punishments are not excessive.[5]
On the demand side, the government in partnership with civil society is considering how it can support users of the justice system through ‘the provision of widely available community-based paralegals.[6] Towards this end, the government plans to utilise the expertise and extensive experience of civil society organisations like Timap for Justice,[7] who have provided rural communities with free legal advice and assistance, mediation services and rights education for several years through community-based paralegals.
Scaling up grassroots justice services
Since August 2009, the Open Society Justice Initiative has been working with the Government of Sierra Leone, Timap for Justice, the World Bank and other civil society organisations, to develop a national approach to justice services, one that includes a frontline of community-based paralegals and a small corps of public interest lawyers. Key objectives of this five year project include:
- Working on development and adoption of new legislation to recognise paralegals as providers of justice services, and set standards for paralegals and justice service organisations.
- Assisting in the establishment of national oversight mechanisms as necessary for their formal recognition.
- Establishing a training program for paralegals, and lawyers/ administrators on how to support and supervise paralegals.
- Funding and coordinating provision of justice services by new and existing paralegal organisations across the country.
- Developing and implementing mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of the work of justice service providers.
Progress and challenges
Within the past twelve months, the scale up project has taken significant strides towards achieving its objectives. In particular it has:
- Formed justice service organisations into an informal coalition to advocate for the inclusion of paralegals in the draft legal aid bill as legal aid providers, and provided written and oral submissions to help shape the draft bill.
- Developed a curriculum and conducted a seven week training course for the first set of 41 community-based paralegals within the scale up project.
- Overseen the deployment of the recently trained community based paralegals in sixteen new offices across rural communities through partner organisations.
- Initiated dialogue with the University of Makeni to host a distinctively tailored and accredited certificate course in paralegal studies to meet the requirements of the project.
- Raised awareness about the role of paralegals in the justice sector through newspaper and newsletter publications in Sierra Leone.
- Engaged influential stakeholders such as the bar association and the judiciary on the utility of paralegals as primary justice service providers.
Several challenges were apparent from the outset of the initiative and remain. These include:
- The rather weak capacity of in-country civil society, particularly those involved in justice service provision in rural areas
- Communication infrastructure in rural communities is particularly poor making it difficult and expensive to reach those in need of justice services especially in the rainy season
- Accessing more resources to sustain the project beyond the five year time line.
How will the project contribute to the legal empowerment of the people?
- The scale up will provide justice mechanisms in communities unreached presently, helping to reverse the access to justice deficit.
- The scale-up will provide an opportunity for communities to benefit from education and awareness-raising on important aspects of the law and basic human rights.
- Community organising as part of the work of paralegals will give communities a voice to participate in decisions affecting them.
Monitoring and evaluation
Community-based paralegals within the project are backstopped by a small corps of lawyers who in intractable cases employ litigation and high-level advocacy to address injustices which the paralegals cannot handle on their own. At a lower level, lead paralegals in charge of several regional offices provide close supervision of the activities of paralegals. Several tools have been developed to aid supervision, such as case intake forms, activity and action ledgers, etc, all of which provide verifiable information about steps taken to deal with cases that are reported. In addition, community oversight boards, comprising members of the communities in which paralegal offices are situated, provide another layer of oversight.
The project is currently considering different evaluation mechanisms to measure the impact of the scale up. One is case tracking, which involves taking a random sample of cases from across the dockets of partner organisations and interviewing all the parties involved. Another method being considered is a survey of households within a certain radius of paralegal offices to gauge perceptions and satisfaction. The scale up team is however open to consider and still studying other methods that would give a better and more holistic picture of the impact of the project in the lives of the rural population.
[1] First published in the JUSTICE-ILAG Legal Aid Newsletter September-October 2010
[2] Government of Sierra Leone Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan 2008-2010, pg. vi.
[3] See 1 above.
[4] See 1 above.
[5] See 1 above, pg 18.
[6] See 4 above.
[7] A local non-governmental organisation in Sierra Leone set up in 2003 with support from the Open Society Justice Initiative.