Human rights in Sierra Leone

Among the major human rights problems in Sierra Leone today, according to a 2011 U.S. State Department report, are "security force abuse and use of excessive force with detainees, including juveniles; harsh conditions in prisons and jails; official impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged detention, excessive bail, and insufficient legal representation; interference with freedom of speech and press; forcible dispersion of demonstrators; widespread official corruption; societal discrimination and violence against women, discrimination based on sexual orientation; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse; trafficking in persons, including children; and forced child labor".

[1] Sierra Leone has acceded to or ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

[2] In September 2011, Sierra Leone's First UPR Report was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.

[4] A 2001 overview noted that there had been "serious and grotesque human rights violations" in Sierra Leone since its civil war began in 1991.The rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), had "committed horrendous abuses", including rape and the amputation of limbs.

"[5] Crimes committed during the war "included severing limbs, forcibly recruiting children into armed groups, widespread rape and coercion of women and girls as 'bush wives' of combatants, burning houses, and killing and maiming of civilians.

Child soldiers were deliberately overwhelmed with violence "in order to completely desensitize them and make them mindless killing machines".

[6] Sierra Leone's civil war ended in January 2002 after the U.N. established a large peacekeeping force that helped restore peace and stability.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established, and in 2004 it issued its final report, which included a long list of recommendations intended to remedy "some of the endemic problems that the TRC identified as causes of the war including issues relating to protecting human rights, fighting corruption, the need for wholesale reform of the justice and security sectors, and improving the democratic participation of youth and women".

[7] In 2004 UN peacekeepers handed security over to Sierra Leone's armed forces and police and were replaced by a UN peacebuilding mission, UNIOSIL, which in 2008 was in turn replaced by the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), which is tasked with monitoring and upholding human rights and the rule of law.

[8] The government has made efforts to improve human rights on a variety of fronts, establishing "systems of accountability for human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during the conflict, and promoting rule of law and democratic governance", according to a 2010 report by the International Center for Transitional Justice.

Still, the country falls seriously short by most human-rights measures, and the ICTJ notes that despite "progress on its obligations to provide justice to victims of serious human rights violations", Sierra Leone "needs to work harder" at implementing the TRC's recommendations.

[citation needed] Although freedom of speech and of the press are officially guaranteed, they are often restricted and journalists engage in self-censorship.

[11] There is widespread discrimination in Sierra Leone against women, who are routinely denied equal access to education, medical care, employment, and credit.

Tribal secret societies in rural areas hold forcible initiation rites that, in the case of women, involve genital mutilation.

[12] Wife-beating is taken for granted as a normal part of life, and most women consider it a justified punishment for such offenses as burning food or leaving the house without permission.

Female genital cutting in Sierra Leone (FGM) which is carried out mainly by women's secret societies, is on the decline owing to a growing sense that it is morally offensive, but remains a major problem.

The report gained wide attention, with an article in The Guardian noting that most women in the country "are too poor to pay for lifesaving treatment...Thousands bleed to death after giving birth.

"[15] In September 2011, Amnesty International noted that despite the launch in Sierra Leone, a year earlier, of the Free Health Care Initiative, under which pregnant women and lactating mothers were supposed to receive free medical treatment, such women were still "being asked to pay for drugs, which they cannot afford".

An Amnesty International official called Sierra Leone's health-care system "dysfunctional in many respects", with poor women and girls enjoying only "limited access to essential care in pregnancy and childbirth".

However, owing to a lack of resources and poor cooperation on the part of other government bodies, the ministry's efforts to protect women's rights have had little effect.

Individuals are compelled to work in "prostitution, domestic servitude, and forced service or labor in artisanal diamond and granite mining, petty trading, portering, rockbreaking, street crime, and begging", as well as "in the fishing and agriculture sectors".

Although the law requires that detainees be charged in court within 3 days of arrest (or, in some cases, 10), authorities routinely skirt this rule.

Police corruption is a major challenge, with officers dropping charges or making false arrests in return for payments, and demanding bribes at checkpoints on roads.

Thanks to training in conduct and human rights, which is accomplished with the help of UN advisors, police are behaving more professionally and responsibly.

In rural areas, tribal courts have the authority to try defendants, although they have no set law code, and there is frequent abuse of judicial power, with village chiefs, in their role as judges, often handing down excessively severe sentences, discriminating against women, and accepting bribes.

"[7] The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone described prison conditions in 2011 as "appalling", and noted that despite its recommendations in previous reports, "much improvement has not been made".

Among the major problems are overcrowding, beatings, solitary confinement, poor hygiene, inadequate lighting, bedding, and ventilation, and guards forcing inmates to sleep on wet floors.

Infants born in prison remain there for some time with their mothers, and are eventually handed over to family or placed in foster care.