Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. Its impact ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual and psychological consequences. In extreme circumstances, the consequences may lead to loss of life. It negatively affects women’s general well-being and prevents them from fully participating in society. In spite of progress in legal and institutional reforms, Sierra Leone still faces significant challenges in responding to violence against women as well as ensuring justice and accountability for the violence meted against them.
To help respond to the gaps, CARL currently works at various level to narrow the implementation gaps in our laws by monitoring implementation and well as strengthening the capacity of law enforcement and justice sector officials through training. We also strategic working sessions for local communities to help change the negative attitudes towards women’s rights and demonstrate willingness to support women’s access to sexual and reproductive health rights, the right to justice of victims of sexual and gender-based violence, and ensure that women are deliberately included in decision-making positions.

Contextual Analysis

Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. Its impact ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual and psychological consequences. In extreme circumstances, the consequences may lead to loss of life. It negatively affects women’s general well-being and prevents them from fully participating in society. The cost of sexual and gender-based violence is huge; it ranges from high healthcare and legal expenses to losses in productivity. These adversely impact national budgets and overall development.

The first major post-conflict initiative to provide protection for women and enhance gender equality was the enactment of the three gender laws in 2007 and 2008 – the Domestic Violence Act, the Devolution of Estates Act and the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act. The Domestic Violence Act was the first law the officially criminalized domestic violence against women in Sierra Leone. The law further makes extensive provisions for free medical services and compensation to victims of domestic violence. The Devolution of Estates Act (DEA) governs what happens when a person dies without leaving a will. Until the law was passed, widows were most often deprived of the right to inherit the property of their intestate deceased husbands, including property they might have jointly acquired or developed. In fact, the law governing intestate succession varied across General, Islamic and Customary laws. All the laws clearly discriminated against women. Under the general law, a widow would only inherit 30 percent of her deceased husband’s property, while the husband received 100 percent of the property upon the demise of his wife. Under the Islamic law women were not allowed to administer estates and the law provided guidance regarding the distribution of the property. Customery laws was different across regions, cultures and ethnic groups, but generally marital property reverted to the husbands family. Thus the DEA was meant to help protect women and children, who were often deprived of their rights to inherit matrimonial property upon the demise of the husband/father. It is now a criminal offense to eject them from the matrimonial property. In addition, widows and widowers now enjoy equal right to inherit matrimonial property, just as their male and female offsprings are equally entitled. Lastly, the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act, among other things, seeks to protect and empower women married under customary law. It provides that a wife in a customary marriage would have the right to buy, receive or sell property or enter in contract herself, rights which were, prior to the enactment of the law, denied women in customary marriage. The law further prescribes that only persons who are 18 years or older are entitled to marry, although the parents can consent to give away their less than 18 year old child in marriage. This law needs to be amended as it is self-contradictory and in any case inconsistent with the Child Rights Act of 2007 and the Sexual Offences Act 2012.

The government enacted the Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The Act provides protection for women against secual assualt, increases the number of secual offences punishable under Sierra Leonean law, and imposes stiff punishment for such crimes. It particularly protects children and other vulnerable sections of the population from abuse especially by teachers, caregivers, traditional and religious leaders. It clarifies the question of consent as an agreement by choice with the person having both the freedom and the capacity to make that choice. Marriage of girls under 18 is no longer a dense against the violation of the Act. Punishment for sexual violence was also increased from two years to between five and fifteen years. In 2019, the Sexual Offences Act was amended. The amended version increases the number of offences for SGBV-related offences, stipulates stiffer punishment for statutory rape, especially sexual penetration of babies, by increasing the minimum punishment for rape and sexual penetration to life imprisonment. The law criminalises out of court settlement, which has been a major barrier to addressing sexual violence cases.