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Sierra Leone - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of the Convention: Combined third, fourth and fifth periodic reports of States parties due in 2012 [2015] UNCRCSPR 4; CRC/C/SLE/3-5 (27 January 2015)
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United Nations
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CRC/C/SLE/3-5
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr.: General 27 January 2015
Original: English
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Committee on the Rights of the Child
Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of
the Convention
Combined third, fourth and fifth periodic reports
of States
parties due in 2012
Sierra Leone[*]
[Date received: 2 February 2013]
Contents
Paragraphs Page
List of child protection network partners/agencies working with the line
ministry 4
List of acronyms 5
I. Background 1–52 7
A. Summary of contents 1–11 7
B. Land and People of Sierra Leone 12–16 9
C. Political, Economic and Social Contexts 17–31 10
D. Summarized Update of the Line Ministry’s Activities in Sierra
Leone 32–45 13
E. Pro-Child Legislative Development in Sierra Leone
Post-2006 46–52 16
II. General measures of implementation (Compliance with Articles 4, 42
and 44 (para. 6) of the Provisions of the CRC) 53–77 18
A. State Party’s Compliance with the CRC and its Optional
Protocols 53–58 18
B. Information on Specific Reservations to the CRC (Art. 3, etc.) and its
Optional Protocols 59 19
C. Measures to Review and Domesticate the CRC and its Optional
Protocols 60–65 19
D. General Measures Taken to Protect and Promote the CRC and
its
Optional Protocols 66–77 21
III. General principles on the CRC and its Optional Protocols (Compliance
with Articles 2, 3, 6 and 12 of the Provisions of the
CRC) 78–88 25
A. Non-Discrimination 78–82 25
B. Best Interests of the Child 83 26
C. Right to Life, Survival and Development 84–86 26
D. Respect for Views of Children 87–88 27
IV. Civil rights and freedoms (Compliance with Articles 7, 8, 13-17
and 37(a) of the Provisions of the CRC) 89–95 27
A. Birth Registration 89–90 27
B. Corporal Punishment 91–92 28
C. Follow-up to the report of the independent expert for the United Nations
study on violence against children 93–95 28
V. Family environment and alterative care (Compliance with Articles 5,
18 (paras. 1-2), 9-11, 19-21, 25, 27 and 39 of the
CRC) 96–103 29
A. Family environment 96 29
B. Children without Parental Care 97–99 29
C. Residential and Foster Care 100–101 30
D. Adoption 102 31
E. Child Abuse and Neglect 103 32
VI. Basic Health and Welfare of Children (Compliance with Articles 6,
18 (para. 3), 23, 24, 26 and 27(paras. 1-3) of the
CRC) 104–118 33
A. Children with Disabilities 104 33
B. Right to Health and Access to Health Services 105–107 34
C. Adolescent Health 108–109 35
D. Harmful Traditional Practices 110–113 36
E. HIV/AIDS 114–116 37
F. Standards of Living 117–118 38
VII. Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities (Compliance with Articles
28,
29 and 31 of the CRC) 119–121 38
Education 119–121 38
VIII. Special Protection Measures (Compliance with Articles 22, 38, 39, 40,
37(b) and (d), 30 and 32-36 of the CRC) 122–140 40
A. Unaccompanied, Refugee and Internally Displaced Children 122 40
B. Economic Exploitation, including Child Labour 123–126 41
C. Street Children 127–129 42
D. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 130–131 43
E. Sale, Trafficking and Abduction of Children 132 43
F. Implementation of Juvenile Justice 133–137 44
G. Protection of Witnesses and Victims of Crimes 138 46
H. Ratification of International Instruments 139 46
I. Follow-up and Dissemination 140 46
IX. Conclusion 141 46
List of child protection network partners/agencies
working
with the line ministry
Advocacy Movement Network
Association for Children in Crisis
Christian Brothers
Defence for Children International
Don Bosco
Enhancing Interaction and Interface between Civil Society and the State
Faith Alliance against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST)
Family Homes Movement
GOAL Ireland
Human Rights Commission
International Social Services
Justice Sector Co-ordination Office
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Health and Sanitation
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security
PLAN Sierra Leone
Save the Children (SC UK)
Sierra Leone Police
Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL)
St. George’s Foundation
The Local Councils
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
World Hope International (WHI)
World Vision
Youth for Christ
List of acronyms
APC All People’s Congress
CFN Children’s Forum Network
CP-Com Child Protection Committee
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
DCI Defence for Children International
ECOMOG Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
FAAST Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking
FGM Female genital mutilation
FHC Free Health Care
FHC-I Free Health Care Initiative
FSU Family Support Unit
GBV Gender-based violence
GDP Gross domestic product
HRCSL Human Rights Commission Sierra Leone
ILO International Labour Organization
JSDP Justice Sector Development Programme
MEST Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
NASSIT National Social Security and Insurance Trust
NCC National Commission for Children
NGOs Non-governmental organizations
OPAC Optional Protocol to CRC on the involvement of children in armed
conflict
OPSC Optional Protocol to CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography
PHC Population and Housing Census
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
PSSO Principal Social Services Officer
RUF Revolutionary United Front
SCSL Special Court of Sierra Leone
SSO Social Services Officer
SSSO Senior Social Services Officer
TACKLE Tackling Child Labour through Education
TIP Trafficking in Persons
UNFPA United Nations Population Fund
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
WFP World Food Programme
I. Background
A. Summary of contents
- The
State Party (Sierra Leone) ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) on June 18, 1990 after it had been unanimously
adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. In accordance with its treaty
obligations under the CRC, the
country in the year 2007 domesticated the
Convention in extensio by enacting the Child Rights Act 2007 (Act
No. 7 of 2007)[1] hereinafter
called the Child Rights Act. The short title to the Act provides that it is
designed “to provide for the promotion
of the rights of the child
compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the
General Assembly of the United
Nations on 20 November, 1989, and its Optional
Protocols of 8 September, 2000; and the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare
of the Child, and for other related matters”. Thus, even though
the Act is not holistic and all-embracing on child rights issues
within the
country, such as the exclusion or non-coverage of matters relating to the
administration of juvenile justice and adoption
of children from its purview,
the Child Rights Act contains detailed provisions on the rights, welfare and
protection of children
at all levels.
- The
present report further notes that following the submission of the State
Party’s initial report to the Committee on the Rights
of the Child
(hereinafter called “the CRC Committee”) in April 1996, the State
Party, in 2005, also submitted its second
country report on the implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the CRC Committee pursuant to
Article 44 of
the CRC.[2]
Thereafter, various written replies were sent to the CRC Committee in response
to a list of issues raised by it.[3]
The Committee considered the second country report in its 1330th and 1331st
meetings in May 2008 and came out with its concluding
observations and
recommendations,[4] which were adopted
on 6 June 2008 in its 1342nd meeting.
- Furthermore,
in August 2007, the State Party submitted its reports on the periodic
implementation of the Optional Protocol to the
CRC on the involvement of
children in armed conflict (OPAC)[5]
and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution
and child pornography (OPSC).[6] In
similar vein, the CRC Committee considered and adopted its concluding
observations and recommendations on the State Party’s
reports on its
implementation of the Optional Protocols in October
2010.[7]
- The
report is thus a presentation of the gains made since the 2005 country report,
the various strides taken to address certain key
challenges highlighted in the
said Report as well as those yet to be fully addressed, and the prevailing
efforts and programmes put
in place to respond to and address the concerns and
recommendations of the CRC Committee in its consideration of the State
Party’s
2005 and 2007 reports respectively.
- The
State Party takes into consideration the seriousness and depth of the CRC
Committee’s observations, enquiries and comments
in its respective
concluding observations and uses this report to highlight fundamental
intervention points in the country’s
bid to respect and safeguard the
rights of its children as well as protect and promote their best interests and
wellbeing nationally.
This is essentially in line with achieving and maintaining
the fourth key objective of Sierra Leone’s Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper II (2008-2012) also known as the “Agenda for Change” or PRSP
II, which is “to ensure sustainable human development
through the
provision of improved social services”, including but not limited to
ensuring sustained economic growth, poverty
reduction, improving the quality and
access to education especially for primary and junior secondary schools,
providing early childhood
care for more children, encouraging the girl child to
attend and complete school, and focusing on healthcare delivery particularly
for
infants and pregnant women.
- In
summary, and in line with the 2010 treaty-specific guidelines adopted by the CRC
Committee regarding the form and content of periodic
reports submitted by States
Parties under Article 44 (1)(b), this report covers the prevailing child
rights and welfare situation
in Sierra Leone in all its forms – legal,
social, economic, health and, inter alia, equity situations concerning children
especially
as it relates to or compares with the situation in 2005 when the
second country report was submitted. It begins by outlining in summary
the
general child rights and welfare situation in the country within political,
economic, social and demographic contexts as well
as the basic challenges and
constraints faced and envisaged; and then considers specific areas within the
reporting guidelines including
General Measures of Implementation, which in turn
covers national law and policy relative to the CRC and its Optional Protocols;
national policy, planning, strategy and coordination; budget allocation and
international assistance sought in implementing programmes
affecting women and
children generally; monitoring mechanisms and the role of independent human
rights institutions, civil society
organizations, child forum networks and
INGOs, NGOs and community-based organizations in promoting and publicizing the
CRC within
the country.
- The
report further moves into other specific areas like defining childhood as
required by law in Sierra Leone. It analyses the General
Principles of Child
Rights and Welfare as outlined in the CRC (arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12), noting in
particular the principle of non-discrimination,
best interest principle, right
to life, survival and development of a child, and respect for the views of
children. It also delves
into Civil and Political Freedoms enjoyed by children
within the country such as birth registration; freedom of expression,
association,
thought and religion; access to appropriate information, protection
of the child’s privacy and the role of the media in that
regard; as well
as the prevention from torture, inhuman and degrading/harmful treatment.
- As
it progresses, the report narrows down to discussions on Family Environment and
Alternative Care, highlighting, inter alia, issues
on parental responsibilities,
duties and rights, national social security and recovery of maintenance for
children; issues on separation,
adoption, trafficking and illicit transfer
and/or non-return; child abuse, neglect and/or abandonment; as well as child
rehabilitation/reform,
placement, reunification and reintegration. The report
examines Disability, Basic Health and Welfare Situations in the Sierra Leone,
touching on areas like child survival and development; maternal and primary
healthcare; disadvantaged children, including those with
disabilities and health
challenges; family planning and safeguarding reproductive rights of adolescents;
regulation of prejudicial/harmful
practices affecting children; prevention of
HIV/AIDS and other sex-related diseases; measures to protect children from
substance
abuse; nutrition and food security for children; and basic child care
and support services.
- Another
fundamental area covered in the report touches on Education, Leisure and
Cultural Activities affecting children. Under this
rubric, the National
Education Policy and Act are discussed, as well as the promotion of peace
education among pupils and provision
of recreation and cultural programmes for
children generally.
- The
report further deals with Special Protection Measures relating to children
outside their country of origin seeking refugee protection,
internally displaced
children and migrant children, if any; children in armed conflict situations, if
any; as well as the extent
of the country’s implementation of OPAC and its
requirements; Child labour updates; Child sexual exploitation and abuse; issues
relating to OPSC and its implementation especially as it relates to the sale,
trafficking and abduction of children; Children in
the Streets; and, inter alia,
orphaned children or children in difficult circumstances. Additionally, the
report highlights the current
country situation relating to Juvenile Justice. It
discusses policy and law relating to children in conflict with the law;
provision
of rehabilitation, reform and reintegration facilities for juvenile
offenders; monitoring and coordination of partner activities;
and the provision
of legal aid for children in conflict with the law and child victims of
abuse.
- The
report concludes on the challenges envisaged in the full realization and
enjoyment of child rights and welfare within Sierra Leone
as well as prospects
for development. The State Party’s commitment to the implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals,
its vision for sustainable development as
contained in Vision 2025, and its efforts at achieving the PRSP II (the
Agenda for Change)
are noted as essential benchmarks for the healthy survival
and development of Sierra Leone’s children.
B. Land and
People of Sierra Leone
- The
Republic of Sierra Leone lies in the West Coast of Africa sandwiched landwards
in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by the Republic
of Guinea and in the
Southern and Eastern Provinces by the Republic of Liberia respectively. Sierra
Leone, Guinea and Liberia together
form the Mano River Union. The country is
bounded on the West by the Atlantic Ocean and, apart from having a land area of
about 72,000
square kilometres, she has a fluvial and oceanic mass of 120 square
kilometres.
- Sierra
Leone also has lots of mineral deposits including being one of the world’s
leading producers of gemstones (diamonds),
rutile (titanium) and iron ore
– the recent mineral exploration and mining of which has greatly increased
the revenue base
and enhanced the economic growth of the country. The country
additionally has such other minerals like gold, bauxite and zircon.
Besides
minerals, the country’s total arable land is estimated at 6%, and has a
tropical climate and dense rain forest in its
Southern and Eastern Provinces. In
summary, the World Fact Book[8] of the
United States of America Central Intelligence Agency has described the State
Party as, inter alia, having “substantial
mineral, agricultural and
fisheries resources”.
- According
to the Provisional Results of the 2004 Population and Housing Census (PHC),
Sierra Leone has a population of about 5 million
people (4,976,871) spread
over twelve districts[9] in the
three provincial regions as well as the Western Area; even though the PHC also
projects an increase in the population at about
6.4 million in 2012 and
6.5 million in 2017 with a population growth rate pegged at 1.8%.
Undoubtedly, both population growth and
demographic spread have direct effect
and impact on sustainable development, economic growth and poverty reduction.
The December
2011 “Situation Analysis of the Status of Children in Sierra
Leone” prepared by the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF)
(hereinafter called “the 2011 UNICEF Situation Analysis”) states
that in 2011, the population of the country
was projected at 5.89 million with
females constituting 51% thereof. It also states that 54% of the population
constitutes people
below the age of 19
years;[10] thus making the country
thrive on a youthful population within the meaning of the 2003 Sierra Leone
National Youth Policy and the
2009 National Youth Commission Act, which define a
youth as “any person between the ages of fifteen and
thirty-five”.
- Besides,
even though the 2011 UNICEF Situation Analysis notes improvements in infant and
under five mortality by stating that “under
five mortality declined from
267 deaths in 1,000 live births in 2005 to 217 in 2010”, it also stated
that “infant mortality
accounted for 59% of all deaths among under five
children in 2010 hence the need to increase focus on new-born care and
health”.[11] Considering,
however, current trends in Sierra Leone’s Free Health Care (FHC)
initiative officially launched in April 2010,
it is expected that the infant and
under five mortality rates will continue to reduce considerably. High teenage
pregnancy is noted
as one of the key factors responsible for the mortalities.
Chronic malnutrition as reflected in 44.4% of children below five years
being
stunted in the year 2010 compared to 40% in 2005 – with the highest levels
of stunting being found among children aged
36-47 months old, also give a grim
picture of the child welfare and survival situation in the country.
- Sierra
Leone’s country report on the CRC submitted in 1996 noted that the country
had 18 ethnic/tribal groupings of which the
Mendes and Temnes constitute the
largest groups, with Krio spoken as the lingua franca and English as the
official language.[12] Current
reports show that the majority of the population are Muslims compared with the
number of Christians and animists/non-believers.
C. Political,
Economic and Social Contexts
1. Political Context
- Sierra
Leone became independent in 1961 and a Republic in 1971. The country was a
practicing democracy until 1978 when the All People
Congress (APC) Party
converted it into a One-Party Republic after enacting the 1978 One-Party
Republican Constitution.
- The
country continued under one-party governance until 1991 when political changes
and a referendum ushered in a reversion to multi-party
democracy characterized
by the current 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone (Act No. 6). About this
time, the civil conflict that ended more than a decade ago was started by the
Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels along the State Party’s border
with Liberia and it later engulfed the entire country.
- The
civil war, corruption and rising economic costs spurred a military coup in 1992
when the APC Party government was overthrown and
replaced by a military junta,
namely, the National Provisional Ruling Council. An internal military takeover
and agitation for political
change by civil society groups led to multi-party
elections and the installing of the Sierra Leone People’s Party government
of President Ahmad Tejan Kabba. Attempts to cease hostilities and end the civil
war culminated in the signing of the Abidjan Peace
Accord in November 1996.
- However,
slightly more than a year into the reign of President Kabba, the army overthrew
his government and in May/June 1997, formed
the Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council (AFRC). President Kabba’s Government continued in exile in
neighbouring Guinea, while
the AFRC formed a de facto alliance government with
the RUF. Civil disobedience and political instability continued until February
1998 when the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group
(ECOMOG), which is the military wing of the Economic Community
of West African
States (ECOWAS), overthrew the AFRC/RUF junta alliance and reinstated President
Kabba.
- Further
instability continued and in January 1991, the government of President Kabba was
again almost overthrown by remnants of the
AFRC/RUF alliance who had regrouped
in the interior of the country and marched on Freetown, inter alia, to reinstate
the Army, which
the President had hitherto disbanded. The civil war heightened
around this time as Freetown was partly set ablaze and unspeakable
atrocities
were committed. ECOMOG however regained its hold later, and flushed out the
rebels.
- The
nature and depth of events of January 1999 warranted the signing of another
Peace Agreement in Lome in July 1999, which finally
led to disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration of all combatants. Amnesty and reprieve were
also granted to all combatants
and their collaborators under the 1999 Lome Peace
Agreement. The war was finally and officially declared over in January 2002. The
United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, formed after the Lome Peace Agreement,
played useful and crucial roles in the peace process
and participated in
rebuilding the country as well.
- Children
suffered the most during the civil war period, an event that exacerbated the
poverty of the country’s people. An estimated
10,000 children were
directly affected by the war both as active combatants and victims. Hundreds of
thousands more suffered indirectly.
As the country regained stability,
institutions like the National Commission for War Affected Children and the
truth and reconciliation
were formed by Acts of Parliament, inter alia, to
provide for war-affected children, hear their stories and help rehabilitate and
reintegrate them into society. Both institutions have since concluded their
assigned tasks and written out their respective reports.
- Similarly,
in 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) was established to try those
who bear greatest responsibility for crimes
committed in the civil war. Trials
in the Court involving the AFRC, RUF and Civil Defence Forces ended a few years
ago with convicts
in each group serving sentences in the Republic of Rwanda. All
of them were, inter alia, convicted for the international crime of
recruiting
children into armed forces or groups during the conflict. The former Liberian
President, Charles Taylor, was also recently
convicted by the SCSL for aiding
and abetting combatants in committing various international crimes in Sierra
Leone. His appeal to
the Appeal Court of the SCSL is, however, pending.
- In
September 2007, the State Party witnessed peaceful, free and fair presidential
and parliamentary elections that eventually led
to a democratic change of
government through the ballot box, ushering in the current government of the All
People’s Congress
Party headed by the President, Ernest BaiKoroma. Local
Government Elections were held in July 2008 followed by a further set of
presidential,
parliamentary and local government elections held in November
2012, which the APC Party won as well.
- The
President launched the PRSP II which he dubbed “the Agenda for
Change” in 2008, outlining his objectives, vision and
strategies for
reducing poverty in the country and increasing human and infrastructural
development. The Agenda focuses on four key
priorities, namely, i) reliable
power/energy supply in the country; ii) raising quantity and value-added
productivity in the agriculture
and fisheries sectors; iii) developing a
national transportation network; and iv) ensuring sustainable human
development through
the provision of improved social services. It is hoped that
the realization of these objectives would lead to the execution of the
President’s other agenda dubbed “the Agenda for Prosperity”,
which is expected to guide the affairs of state in
the next five years following
the successful completion of the 2012 elections.
- Notwithstanding
the President’s above Agenda and myriad efforts by the government to
reduce poverty and address national problems
like the acute electricity
shortages in the city and other parts of the country, poor roads, food
insecurity and widespread corruption,
maintenance of peaceful and sustainable
democracy became threatened by rising political tensions during the recent
elections underpinned
by growing economic hardship, weak institutional
managements and rising poverty in urban and rural areas. The government is
employing
various sustainable strategies to ensure political, social and
economic stability.
- Other
ancillary institutions in ensuring good governance, human rights and democracy,
like the Human Rights Commission for Sierra
Leone, the Anti-Corruption
Commission, the Political Parties Registration Commission, the National
Privatization Commission, the
National Revenue Authority, the Audit Service
Commission, Independent Media Commission and an independent Press among others,
have
all been at work in helping to maintain peace, stability and a steady
economic growth for the country and its children.
2. Economic
and Social Contexts
- In
spite of recent gains in its human development indicators, Sierra Leone is still
ranked among the least developed countries in
the United Nations Development
Programme Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index. It is estimated
that real economic
growth in the country stood at 5%, up from 3.2% in 2009,
which is not gloomy enough considering the global economic recession. This
increase is primarily due to boost in the “construction, infrastructure
development, mining, manufacturing services and electricity
generation”.[13] It is
similarly reported that “rice and staple food production increased
remarkably”.[14]
- Efforts
at achieving the country’s Millennium Development Goals are under way as
notable strides have been made in accessing
basic services such as basic primary
education especially for the girl child, healthcare for pregnant and lactating
mothers as well
as for under five children, improved power generation and
supply, and increased access to the rural areas due to improved road networks.
The GDP per capita income which was rated at
$142[15] in the country’s PRSP
I (2005-2007) is rated at $374 with a GDP of
$2[16] up from $1. Thus,
notwithstanding that the production of iron ore and bauxite projected an
economic growth of 32.5% in 2012 and beyond,
government is alive to the
statistical fact that the poverty of its people continues at a staggering 60%,
down from 70% in 2004.[17]
- Accordingly,
the State Party notes the following as major risk factors in achieving the
objectives set out in its PRSP II, namely,
permissive attitudes to corruption
(which the Anti-Corruption Commission is addressing), illicit drug trafficking
(which has been
considerably curtailed) and 70% youth unemployment (which is
also being addressed). In order to fully realize the core objective
of
sustainable human development, the State Party in 2011 developed and adopted the
National Social Policy, which, inter alia, seeks
to build a robust, coherent,
transparent institutional legal framework for the coordination of all social
protection services; strengthening
social welfare systems and creating
alternative care policy for vulnerable children; building on the potentials of
the physically
challenged; and providing a minimum social protection package in
education, health, nutrition and shelter for disadvantaged children,
women, the
aged, the disabled etc. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and
Children’s Affairs (“the Line Ministry”),
the National Social
Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) scheme, which provides social security for
public and private sector employees
within the country, and the National Revenue
Authority, which oversees and networks income/revenue generation nationally, are
playing
lead roles in maintaining the 2011 National Social Policy.
Government’s core principles for sustainable growth include ensuring
good
governance, macro-economic stability, financial and private sector development,
sound management of natural resources including
petroleum oil and other viable
minerals, and effective monitoring and evaluation of the
PRSP II.
D. Summarized Update of the Line Ministry’s
Activities in Sierra Leone
- The
Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs (herein called
“the Line Ministry”) has undergone
and is continuing to undergo
fundamental structural and personnel development changes that will enhance its
role and usefulness in
the development strides of government. In September,
2011, following gains from past efforts, including functional review processes
commenced by the Department for International Development in 2006, the Line
Ministry undertook extensive structural review and personnel
development changes
to meet the growing challenges of securing and promoting the rights and basic
welfare of children in the country
as well as respond to its own inadequacies
and administrative bottlenecks. The Line Ministry accordingly rephrased its
Mission Statement
as follows: “To ensure the provision of services to
promote the social development and protect the rights of all citizens,
especially the socially marginalised, disadvantaged groups, less privileged
people particularly children, women, the aged and the
disabled, whether groups,
individuals, family units and the needy in our communities. In this regard, the
Ministry promotes and advocates
for (...) resource mobilization and allocation
and ascertains necessary policy development and law reforms. The Ministry also
promotes
gender equality and advocates for the advancement of women in the
political, legal, social, economic and other spheres of
life”.[18]
- The
Line Ministry also stated its key objective to include “building a
protective environment for children by strengthening
and developing a Child
Protection System specific to the Sierra Leone context” and identified the
following as its new Mandate:
- Provide welfare
services i.e. care for the aged, special care for people with disabilities,
social services for vulnerable and exploited
girls, boys, women and men;
- Initiate
government policies relating to gender and children;
- Lead the process
of gender mainstreaming within the country;
- Monitor and
coordinate all activities, including existing structures, relating to women and
children;
- Coordinate the
efforts of NGOs, United Nations agencies and other donor agencies in addressing
the needs of vulnerable and exploited
girls and boys, women and men;
- Raise
awareness/recognition of the gender gap and take positive steps to narrow gender
disparities, child abuse, violence against
women and marginalization of women
and children in the society;
- To assess the
implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation,
policies or programmes, in all areas and
at all levels;
- Mobilize
resources, both local and international, in support of gender and children
related projects Collaboration with relevant government
ministries and national
and international organizations/institutions.
- The
Line Ministry has also continued to identify target areas of intervention, map
out strategies, lay out goals and objectives, and
strengthen its partnership and
network with various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and community-based
organizations involved
in protecting and promoting child rights and wellbeing in
the country; the partners and the Line Ministry altogether form the National
Child Protection Committee (i.e. National CP-Com), which coordinates and
supervises the Regional Child Protection Committees in the
North, South and
Eastern Provinces respectively as well as in the Western Area. The Committee has
three thematic subcommittees, namely,
Alternative Care, Child Justice and
Trafficking in Persons units and it holds bi-monthly meetings to discuss policy
matters affecting
children nationally as well as urgent matters affecting their
welfare.
- The
Line Ministry has particularly continued to work and collaborate with UNICEF as
the Ministry’s focal partner in national
development issues pertaining to
children.
- Furthermore,
the restructuring process has eliminated existing structures and replaced them
with the following Directorates: 1) the
Human Resources and
Administrative/Finance Directorate; 2) Policy Development and Strategic
Planning Directorate; 3) Gender Directorate;
4) Social Welfare
Directorate; and 5) Children’s Affairs Directorate – which
entities are supervised administratively
by the Chief Social Services Officer
and the Permanent Secretary of the Line Ministry in the order of seniority; the
political heads
being the Minister and his/her Deputy. Essentially, the
Children’s Affairs Directorate comprises the Child Protection, Child
Justice and Alternative Care Divisions; while the Social Welfare Directorate
comprises the Trafficking in Persons, Disability/Elderly
Persons and Disaster
Relief Divisions. Each of these Divisions are manned or to be manned by a
Principal Social Services Officers
(PSSO) with years of experience in the Line
Ministry or related fields of child protection and welfare. The PSSOs supervise
and direct
the affairs of both Senior Social Services Officers (SSSOs) and
ordinary Social Services Officers (SSOs) who are mostly field officials
within
the Line Ministry.
- Additionally,
in order to more adequately respond to its research, planning, legal affairs,
data collection, processing and logistical
needs, the Line Ministry’s
Policy Development and Strategic Planning Directorate anticipates the
recruitment of Legal Officers
and a Policy/Planning Officer who will work with
available research and planning Consultants to update data and respond to the
regulatory/legal
and statistical needs of the Ministry. Similarly, the Human
Resources and Administrative/Finance Directorate shall set up various
units
including, Human Resource Management, Records, Public Relations and
Finance/Procurement units. The Gender Directorate shall
additionally deal with
all matters pertaining to women, including the advancement of girls, with a
Gender Policy, Advancement and
Advocacy
Divisions.[19] Advertisements in the
gazette are under way.
- At
the regional levels, the Line Ministry intends to strengthen child welfare and
protection activities within the Local Councils
by providing them with Child
Welfare Departments on a decentralized scale. These Departments shall be
monitored and coordinated by
the four Regional Directors who shall also be
designated as Assistant National Directors. For easy access to information and
data,
the Line Ministry shall set up an Information Systems Office manned by an
Information Officer that will liaise with and collect relevant
and needed
information from SSOs and the Ministry’s Data Clerks.
- Besides,
having recognized that customary law and practice impacts the lives and
regulatory social practices of the majority of Sierra
Leoneans, especially those
living in the Provinces, the Line Ministry, with the support of its Partners,
recently prepared a memorandum
of understanding between Paramount Chiefs, the
Family Support Units (FSU) of the Sierra Leone Police and the Child Welfare
Committees
in the various Chiefdoms on how the respective parties to the
Memorandum can complement each other in identifying, sharing information
on,
reporting, prosecuting and preventing cases of child abuse in their communities
devoid of customary practices and social/traditional
impediments. This process
helps to integrate community participation and ownership of the local regulatory
mechanisms that protect
children and advance their
wellbeing.[20]
- Moreover,
in May 2012, the Line Ministry developed a National Alternative Care Policy for
Children, inter alia, to “guide Government,
NGOs and communities on the
protection of children involved in adoption processes, fostering, independent
living or [those] living
in children’s homes”. The
Policy[21] assesses the situation of
children involved in alternative care generally – including those who are
vulnerable or are at risk
of abuse, stipulates policies premised on
international standards for their protection and provides guidelines for Local
Councils
and Child Welfare Committees on how to deal with, protect and prevent
cases of abuse against children in alternative care or who
are at risk. To
ensure effective implementation, coordination and supervision of the process, an
Alternative Care Officer shall be
recruited by the Ministry to work with field
officials.
- It
is to be noted that the National Alternative Care Policy anticipates the State
Party’s broader and all-inclusive National
Social Protection Policy, which
combines national growth with equity for the poor, including providing for the
“chronically
poor” people, persons who are “economically at
risk” and those who are “socially vulnerable”, such
as
disadvantaged women and children. On a scale, the Social Policy prioritizes the
needs of children of especially poor families
as prime for social action and
response by the State.[22]
- Similarly,
in the field of Child Justice, the Line Ministry and its Partners in January
2010 prepared the “Age Assessment Guidelines
for Children in Contact with
the Justice System” in order to facilitate the determination of the ages
of children who come
in contact with due process and the justice system,
including children in conflict with the law, child victims of abuse and child
witnesses. The Line Ministry notes age assessment as a key activity or component
of the National Child Justice Strategy for Sierra
Leone 2006, which is under
review, as well as the Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan
(2008-2011) of the Government
of Sierra Leone. Accordingly, a Child Justice
Officer shall be recruited by the Line Ministry, inter alia, to work with
SSOs.
- The
Line Ministry has, in addition to facilitating the enactment of the Sexual
Offences Act 2012 by Parliament in order to consolidate
and more adequately
punish sexual offences, drawn up the National Referral Protocol on Gender-based
violence (GBV) to “provide
technical guidance and ensure that all
survivors/victims of GBV (both domestic and sexual violence) receive a prompt
and comprehensive
response from service providers that meets their needs from
the first point of contact
onwards”.[23]
- The
Line Ministry has further continued to undergo training programmes on child
protection issues for its staff; this has mostly been
achieved through support
from its CP-Com Partners and the limited budget provided by government. In order
to enhance effective monitoring,
ensure and maintain proper welfare for
children, and protect and document child rights abuses or violations as well,
SSOs require
refresher training on evolving national policies/laws and
international norms affecting children. The Ministry notes that since the
financial year 2010 to 2012, it has received a steady 0.4% as the budgetary
ceiling towards non-salary, non-interest expenditure
for grants to welfare
institutions; diets for the approved school and remand home; and for social
development programmes –
with each programme receiving 0.1% of the
budget.[24] Similarly, the Gender
and Children’s Affairs Division has, as a unit, also received a steady
0.4% as the budgetary ceiling
towards non-salary, non-interest expenditure for
all Gender and Children’s programmes, the Children’s Commission and
for the reintegration of Street
Children.[25] Budgetary constraints,
understaffing, limited staff training and capacity building added to low monthly
salaries form part of the
major challenges facing the Ministry in its work.
- Finally,
and among other things, the Line Ministry has, as part of its mandate, continued
to work with the Children’s Forum
Network (CFN), being a national
“child-to-child” organization with branches in the three Provinces,
to spread information
and knowledge on child wellbeing and development
issues.[26] Through the CFN, the
Ministry has ensured that children get directly involved and take frontline
roles in advocacy and sensitization
programmes covering their rights and
welfare. This approach strengthens children’s right to be heard and their
views taken
on board. Since its establishment by the Ministry in 2001, the CFN
has become entrenched as a formidable child protection agency
with its executive
members regularly sharing their views on national issues concerning
children.
E. Pro-Child Legislative Development in Sierra Leone
Post-2006
- Another
key development in the area of child welfare relates to the enactment of the
2007Child Rights Act mentioned in this report
together with other legislation
impacting child development, such as the Registration of Customary Marriage and
Divorce Act, 2009
(Act No. 1), the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act
No. 20), the Devolution of Estates Act, 2007 (Act No. 21), the Persons
with Disability
Act, 2011 (Act No. 3), the National Drugs Act, 2008 (Act
No. 10), the Prevention and Control of HIV and AIDS Act, 2007 (Act
No. 8),
the Sierra Leone National Commission on Small Arms Act, 2010 (Act
No. 6) and, inter alia, the National Youth Commission Act, 2009.
These
legislation, added to existing laws like the Education Act, 2004, the NASSIT Act
(2001), the Human Rights Commission Act (2004), the Anti-Human Trafficking Act
(2005), the Local Government Act (2004), the Adoption Act (1989), the Children
and Young Persons Act (Chapter 45 of the Laws of Sierra Leone, 1960) and
the recent
Environment Protection Agency Act (2008) and Sexual Offences Act
(2012) altogether strengthen and add legal efficacy to the protection
and
promotion of child rights and development in Sierra Leone.
- Among
other things, the Line Ministry notes that the Child Rights Act has standardized
the definition of a child as “a person
below the age of 18” to the
extent it is now the more acceptable legal definition of a child incorporated in
other recent legislation.
The Child Rights Act also provides for the
establishment of a National Commission for Children as an independent legal
entity to
monitor and coordinate the implementation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the
Child; oversee the implementation of the Child Rights Act itself; and advise the
Government on policies aimed at the
improvement of the condition or welfare of
children in Sierra Leone, compatible with the Convention and
Charter.[27] The Ministry has made
strident efforts at establishing the said Commission, with would-be members
being already nominated by various
stakeholders for Parliamentary approval.
- The
Child Rights Act entrenches child rights in all aspects and puts the
child’s best interests as the fundamental principle
or primary
consideration in all matters pertaining to the
child.[28] The Act provides as well
for the establishment of Child Welfare Committees at decentralized community
levels and other bodies, including
Child Panels to hear informal or
quasi-judicial matters, a Family Court to sit on civil matters pertaining to
children, and Childcare
Institutions or Approved Residential Homes. It also
stipulates laws governing child employment. Furthermore, section 40 (2) of
the
Act provides that “the Ministry responsible for finance shall reserve
into a trust fund and not utilize after thirty years
a proportion of the
proceeds from non-renewable resources, for the benefit of children”. When
fully implemented, it is hoped
that great and far-reaching improvements shall be
achieved in the advancement of the lives of children in Sierra Leone.
- Besides
the foregoing, it is noted that the “Three Gender Bills”, namely,
the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce
Act (2009), the Domestic
Violence Act (2007), the Devolution of Estates Act (2007) have made lots of
improvements on the situation
of women and children in terms of safeguarding
their rights in personal relationships, their rights to properties of persons
alive
and dead as well as upholding their social security. The Sexual Offences
Act, 2012reinforces legal parameters for protecting children.
On health, safety
and disability issues regarding children, the National Drugs Act (2008), the
Prevention and Control of HIV and
AIDS Act (2007) and the Persons with
Disability Act (2011) coupled with the Government’s Free Health Care
initiative are measures
that can cumulatively strengthen the child welfare
situation in the State Party when implemented.
- The
Sexual Offences Act, 2012 has consolidated existing offences of a sexual nature
and created further offences like incest by a
woman, sexual harassment, indecent
exposure, voyeurism, bestiality etc. with grave penalties for their
infringement. It also outlines
specific offences committed against children,
such as sexual penetration of a child, sexual touching of a child, sexual
activity
in child’s presence, causing a child to watch sexual activity,
offences relating to producing, distributing, processing, accessing
and using
child pornography etc. with severe penalties as well.
- In
the area of adoptions, local and inter-country, the Line Ministry notes the
Government’s white paper on the HANCI-MAPS adoptions
released on 17 April
2012.[29] In view of the Commission
of inquiry conducted into the purported adoption of 29 Sierra Leonean minors
reportedly facilitated or
undertaken by HANCI-MAPS in 1997 (HANCI being an NGO
registered in Sierra Leone and MAPS being the organization Maine Adoption
Placement
Services of the United States of America) and the acceptance by the
Government of Sierra Leone of the recommendations of the Commission
vis-à-vis especially inter-country adoption, the Ministry is currently
reviewing the 1989 Adoption Act in order to bring it
up to date as well as in
harmony with the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation
in respect of Intercountry
Adoption.
- Finally,
the Line Ministry notes the contents of the Final Report on the Sierra Leone
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey,
2010[30] as well as the UNICEF
Situation Analysis of the Status of Children in Sierra Leone,
2011[31] and states that the State
Party has taken on board the concerns and recommendations therein with a view to
improving on the current
child rights and welfare situation in the country and
the challenges they collectively pose.
II. General measures of
implementation (Compliance with Articles 4, 42 and 44 (para. 6) of the
Provisions
of the CRC)
A. State Party’s Compliance with the CRC and its Optional Protocols
- As
noted earlier in this report, the State Party signed CRC on 2 February 1990 and
deposited the instrument for ratification with
the Secretary-General on 18 June
1990, thereby fulfilling its treaty obligations and demonstrating its commitment
to adhere to the
provisions and dictates of the Convention. The State Party is
also a party to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child,[32] an instrument which
protects the rights and welfare of children in Africa and, in particular, makes
their best interests the primary consideration in all actions concerning
children.
- Sierra
Leone additionally ratified OPAC on the 15 May 2002, and thereafter declared
that the minimum age of recruitment into its National
Armed Forces shall
henceforth be 18 years. In similar vein, she ratified OPSC on the 17 September
2001.
- Sierra
Leone was also a party to the Plan of Action adopted by the General Assembly
committing Governments in the world to ensure
and enhance “a world fit for
children.” In that Plan of Action, apart from committing herself to
“putting in place,
as appropriate, effective national legislation,
policies and action plans and allocating resources to fulfil and protect the
rights
and to secure the wellbeing of children”, the State Party
reaffirmed its obligation “to take action to promote and protect
the
rights of every child, every human below the age of 18 years including
adolescents.” She also, inter alia, undertook to
“respect the
dignity and to secure the wellbeing of all children” and acknowledged the
CRC and its Optional Protocols
and other related international instruments as
“a comprehensive set of international legal standards for the protection
and
wellbeing of
children.”[33]
- Moreover,
the country has continued to use, with emphasis and determination, the
eight-point development indicators contained in the
Millennium Development
Goals[34] as the basis for its
national development plans and as the bedrock for the country’s Vision
2025 Development Strategy.[35]
Similarly, the State Party’s Poverty Reduction Papers, to wit, PRSP I
(2005-2007) and PRSP II (2008-2012) have steadily emphasized
its commitment
to uplifting the welfare of children in its development programmes. The Agenda
for Prosperity PRSP III (2012-2017)
intends to do likewise.
- As
noted in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the present report, following the submission of
the State Party’s initial report to the CRC
Committee in April 1996, the
country, in 2005, also submitted its second country report on the implementation
of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child to the Committee pursuant to
Article 44 of the CRC. Thereafter, various written replies were sent to the
CRC Committee in response to a list of issues raised by it. The Committee
considered the second country report in its 1330th and
1331st meetings in May
2008 and came out with its concluding observations and recommendations, which
were adopted on 6 June 2008
in its 1342nd Meeting.
- Similarly,
in August 2007, the State Party submitted its reports on the periodic
implementation of the Optional Protocols to CRC,
namely, OPAC and OPSC
aforesaid. The Committee also considered and adopted its concluding observations
and recommendations on the
State Party’s reports on its implementation of
the Optional Protocols in October 2010.
B. Information on
Specific Reservations to the CRC (Art. 3, etc.)
and its Optional
Protocols
- In
accordance with the November 2010 Treaty-specific Guidelines on the form and
contents of periodic reporting by States Parties to
the CRC Committee, the State
Party reports under this rubric that she has no specific reservations and
declarations to the CRC and
its Optional Protocols especially as regards the
definition of a child. To this end, the State Party has enacted several recent
legislations,
inclusive of the Child Rights Act, 2007 which domesticates the CRC
extensively, that consistently define a child as “any person
below the age
of eighteen”.
C. Measures to Review and Domesticate the
CRC and its Optional Protocols
- The
enactment of the Child Rights Act extensively domesticates the CRC and its
Optional Protocols. Apart from harmonizing and standardizing
the age of a child
at 18 years without reservation, the Act states that “the fundamental
principle to be applied in the interpretation
of [the] Act shall be that the
short- and long-term best interests of the child shall be a primary
consideration in any decision
or action that may affect the child or children,
as a group”. The short title to the Act, as noted earlier, also provides
that
the Act is designed to “to provide for the promotion of the rights of
the child compatible with the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, adopted by
the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November, 1989, and its
Optional Protocols of 8 September,
2000; and the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child, and for other related matters”.
- In
addition to the above, Part III of the Act provides for specific rights of the
child, inclusive of the child’s right to life,
maximum survival and
development; its right a name and nationality; right to grow with its parents;
its right to parental property
whether born in wedlock or not; its rights to
social activity and opinion and, inter alia, the protection of the child from
exploitative
labour, torture and degrading or inhuman
treatment.[36] The Act also covers
parental and state responsibilities to the child, inclusive of but not limited
to the parent’s obligation
to control and guide the child’s
upbringing, maintain personal relations with it, act as its legal
representative;[37] and in the case
of the state and its local bodies (decentralized councils), “to plan and
implement participatory activities
that improve the welfare of children”
and, inter alia, “implement policies and programmes for childcare services
to help
working parents carry out employment and other work-related obligations
and necessary activities without unnecessarily harming the
best interests of the
child”.[38] Section 35 of
the Act provides a penalty of a fine not exceeding Thirty Million Leones (about
$7,000) or an imprisonment term not
exceeding two years or both such fine and
imprisonment term for contravening the rights of the child in the Act.
- In
the case of OPAC, section 28 of the Child Rights Act prohibits the
recruitment of children into armed forces or groups, including
military or
para-military forces. It states the minimum age of recruitment into armed forces
at 18 and prohibits the use of land
mines and other weapons declared by
international instruments to be adverse to children. Similarly, and as noted in
the its report
on the implementation of OPAC dated August 2007, the Recruitment
Policy of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (2004) and the
Armed Forces
Recruitment Act of 2006 prohibits the recruitment or enlistment of persons below
18 years of age into the Sierra Leone
Armed
Forces.[39]
- Additionally,
the State Party recognizes the enactment of the Sierra Leone National Commission
on Small Arms Act, 2010 (Act No. 6)
to address the proliferation of small
arms in the country, leading to the establishment of the Sierra Leone National
Commission on
Small Arms. Besides, in line with its obligations under the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of 15 September,
2000, the
State Party entered into an Agreement with the United Nations Secretary General
in January 2002 for the establishment of
the Special Court for Sierra Leone,
which Court has since been up and running convicting all of the indictees who
have appeared before
it, inter alia, of the international crime of recruiting or
enlisting children into armed forces or groups.
- Regarding
OPSC, the State Party highlights efforts made in prohibiting and regulating
trafficking in persons, especially children,
as contained in the Anti-Human
Trafficking Act (2005) which is under review, as well as in enacting the Sexual
Offences Act (2012)
with stringent penalties, new sexual offences and measures
to regulate sexual relationships and contacts with especially persons
below 18.
Section 34 of the Child Rights Act prohibits the marriage or betrothal of a
person below 18 particularly stipulates at
section 34 that “no
certificate, license or registration shall be granted in respect of any marriage
unless the registrar or
other responsible officer is satisfied that the parties
to the marriage are of the age of majority”. Similarly, the Act amends
under its schedule all previous statutes that provide different ages of consent
for children by substituting the definition of a
child under the said statutes
with the definition under it(the Child Rights Act). It must be noted, however,
that the Registration
of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act
(2009)[40] provides that persons
below 18 years could marry under customary law if their parents, guardians,
resident Magistrate or Chief Administrator
in their locality give(s) consent to
the marriage. Noting that this position clearly conflicts with provisions in the
Child Rights
Act, which is the parent Act intended to supersede all legislation
governing child rights in Sierra Leone, the Line Ministry has
engaged Parliament
(the law-making body) to ipso facto amend the said Registration of Customary
Marriage and Divorce Act.
- Contemporaneous
with the Child Rights Act is the 2006 National Policy on Child Wellbeing,
which is currently being revised into the National Child Protection
Policy. Among the several principles included in the Policy are principles
such as the State Party must make maximum contribution to child
wellbeing or
ensure the enjoyment of child rights; that the State Party must abide and
advance child rights principles at all societal
levels; the State Party must
focus on the performance of duties to realize correlative rights for child
wellbeing; children of the
State Party, subject to age and ability, and other
human rights holders must enjoy their rights responsibly; that all duty bearers
within the State Party at all societal levels must be accountable and, where
necessary, held responsible for the performance of duties
correlative to child
rights; and the principle that capacities at all societal levels must be
accordingly developed within the State
Party to ensure sustainable and
progressive respect, protection, promotion and provision for the enjoyment of
child rights and wellbeing.
The “policy goal” of the National Policy
centres on “making maximum contribution to the realization of Vision 2025
through a focus on child wellbeing within the State Party”; while its
“policy objective” is “to have a country
where the best
interests of the child are paramount in the progressive and maximum attainment
of the survival, development, participation
and protection of every child within
the State Party”.
D. General Measures Taken to Protect and
Promote the CRC
and its Optional Protocols
- The
State Party notes the CRC Committees concerns, observations and recommendations
under paragraphs 6 to 24 of its 2008 concluding
observations on the CRC as
well as paragraphs 7 to 16 of the Committee’s concluding observations
on the State Party’s
initial report on OPAC dated 1 October 2010 and
paragraphs 6 to 22 of its concluding observations on the State
Party’s initial
report on OPSC also dated 1 October 2010. The said
observations concern “General Measures of Implementation” of the
State
Party’s obligations under the CRC and its Optional Protocols. These
measures shall be discussed under the following subheadings
of the said
instruments:
1. Relevant Legislation
2. Coordination
3. National Plan of Action
4. Independent Monitoring
5. Allocation of Resources
6. Data Collection
7. Dissemination, Training and Awareness Raising.
1. Relevant Legislation
- On
the recommendation that the State Party takes, as a matter of priority, all
appropriate measures to ensure that the Child Rights
Act has precedence, in
juridical terms and in practice, over previous legislation relating to child
rights, the State Party acknowledges
that apart from the provisions of
section 3 of the Act, which posits the child’s best interest as the
fundamental principle
to be applied in all decisions or actions concerning the
child or children as a group, efforts are under way to set up the Child
Welfare
Committees at rural and urban settings in order to give effect to the Act.
Alternatively, and aware that it is costly at
this stage to set up Child Panels
at village or chiefdom level as required by the Child Rights Act, the Line
Ministry intends to
train Probation and Social Development workers as
para-legals to mediate in less and/or non-criminal matters involving children
and
to divert them as the case may be. Training and recruiting Magistrates and
other personnel in child rights and related disciplines,
like sociology, child
psychology, ADR and peace studies, are crucial in ensuring that “in
juridical terms and in practice”,
the Child Rights Act takes precedence
over other laws. The State Party also notes the budgetary requirements in
implementing the
Child Rights Act and related legislations like the Sexual
Offences Act, Devolution of Estates Act and so forth especially at the
decentralized Local Council and chiefdom levels, where Child Welfare Committees
and Child Panels are required. The State Party commits
itself to allocating
necessary resources and increased personnel to implement of the Child Rights
Act.
- Regarding
the CRC Committee’s observation in its concluding observations on the
State Party’s report on OPSC on legislation,
the State Party asserts that,
even though trafficking in persons in not strictly synonymous with the sale of a
child, the definition
of “exploitation” in section 2
subsection 3 of the Anti-Human Trafficking Act (2005) is broad enough to
cover any act
or conduct amounting to the sale of a child. According to the said
section, exploitation, inter alia, includes “keeping a person
in a state
of slavery”; “subjecting the person to practices similar to
slavery”; “compelling or causing a
person to provide forced labour
or services”; “keeping a person in a state of servitude, including
sexual servitude”;
“exploitation of the prostitution of
another”; “engaging in any form of commercial sexual
exploitation...”
etc. In any case, the Line Ministry working with
Partners, like FAAST and UNICEF, is reviewing the Act with a view to broadening
and strengthening its mandate. The right of a child to grow with its parents and
to protect the child from exploitative
labour[41] are broad requirements
that could address safeguards against transactions involving
children.
2. Coordination and Cooperation with Civil
Society
- The
State Party also notes the recommendation of the CRC Committee to set up
“a high-level body responsible for coordination
of activities on
child-related issues and that it ensures that [such] body has the adequate
financial and human resources to carry
out its role efficiently”. The
State Party again notes the recommendation by the Committee for capacity to be
given to local
NGOs and to cooperate with Civil Society Groups in order to widen
the scope of the Line Ministry’s operations. The State Party
states in
response that the National Commission for Children (NCC), being an entity
created by the Child Rights Act, is itself in
the process of formation. Its
members have been nominated and are awaiting Presidential and Parliamentary
approval as well as required
logistical support to commence work. The Commission
and its Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner shall be persons qualified to run
the activities of the Commission professionally, including the supervision and
monitoring of matters pertaining to the implementation
of the Child Rights Act,
in the best way possible. The State Party shall seek ways of improving the
capacity of especially local
NGOs and Civil Society Groups in order to
strengthen their partnership with the Ministry and to appropriately collaborate
with them.
- Regarding
the CRC Committee’s observation in its concluding observations on the
State Party’s report on OPSC and OPAC
concerning coordination of matters
pertaining to the two Protocols, the State Party acknowledges the constraints of
the Line Ministry
in implementing coordination, networking and monitoring
activities relevant to OPSC and OPAC. The State Party asserts that, when
the NCC
becomes fully operational, it will address most of these technical issues as
well as give professional and related support
to the work of the Line Ministry.
Notwithstanding that, the State Party is committed to providing resources and
training to officials
of the Line Ministry to make them
proactive.
3. National Plan of Action
- The
State Party further notes the recommendation of the CRC Committee on preparing a
National Action Plan for Children that takes
into account the outcome of the
World Fit for Children document adopted by the General Assembly at its special
session for children
in May 2002 and its mid-term review of 2007. The State
Party also notes the need to fully finance and adequately monitor the
implementation
of the said Plan of Action as well as the “Accelerated Call
for Action” adopted by State Parties during the mid-term
review of the
“Africa Fit for Children” meeting held in Cairo in November 2007.
The State Party accordingly commits itself
to these undertakings and states that
it will especially work with the NCC and the Line Ministry to draw up a National
Action Plan
for Children in Sierra Leone and implement its goals, programmes and
objectives.
- In
similar vein, the State Party shall incorporate in the above National Action
Plan policies, action points and programmes that will
lead to the full
realization of OPSC in Sierra Leone as well as OPAC nationally. In the meantime,
the Line Ministry is, together
with its Partners, developing various Action
Plans to enhance its works, such as the Draft National Strategic Plan (aimed at
mapping
out the Ministry’s potentials, goals and targets within an
achievable time frame); the Draft National Action Plan for the Elimination
of
the Worst Forms of Child Labour (2013-2016) developed by the Ministry of
Employment and Industrial Relations; and the Draft National
Child Justice
Strategy for Sierra Leone (2013-2017) developed by the Justice Sector
Coordination Office.
4. Independent Monitoring
- The
State Party also notes the recommendation of the CRC Committee on the
requirement for independent monitoring of the implementation
of the CRC by the
Human Rights Commission for Sierra Leone (HRCSL) in accordance with the Paris
Principles. While the State Party
recognizes this thoughtful recommendation, it
is recognized that assigning monitoring and evaluation of child rights and
wellbeing
matters to HRCSL when the Child Rights Act has already created the NCC
pending its operationalization will duplicate functions and
make the HRCSL less
effective, even though it gives minimal coverage to child rights and welfare
issues in its annual reports. The
State Party notes that the Committee’s
recommendation herein may be born out of frustration at the delay in setting up
the
NCC which, like the HRCSL, is a body corporate with independent powers and
can sue and be sued.[42] The State
Party accordingly undertakes to expedite the NCC’s formation and operation
nationally.
- The
State Party accordingly notes that the above position is also carried in the
respective recommendations of the CRC Committee’s
concluding observations
on the State Party’s reports on OPSC and OPAC that the NCC be established
expeditiously and that it
acts independently in line with the Paris Principles
Relating to the Status of National Institutions. The NCC will act in
coordination
with HRCSL.
5. Allocation of Resources
- The
State Party significantly notes the respective recommendations of the CRC
Committee’s concluding observations on the State
Party’s reports on
CRC, OPSC and OPAC regarding limited budgetary allocation to the Line Ministry
for the implementation of
its mandate as well as issues relating to corruption
and lack of budget expenditure tracking in the Ministry. The State Party fully
takes this recommendation on board and will strive to increase the budget and
staff of the Line Ministry in order to make the Ministry
efficient and
effective; particularly considering that the Ministry’s activities have
been mostly supported by its NGO Partners,
including UNICEF and other NGOs. The
Public Expenditure Tracking Survey system will also be put in place with
attendant references
to the Anti-Corruption Commission for
shortcomings.
6. Data Collection
- The
State Party notes the respective recommendations of the CRC Committee’s
concluding observations on the State Party’s
reports on the CRC, OPSC and
OPAC on the lack of up-to-date and inadequate data collection coupled with the
disappearance of available
data on child rights and wellbeing matters kept with
the Line Ministry. The State Party fully takes this recommendation on board
even
though technical and logistical assistance in the form of computers and
consultants are provided now and then to the Line Ministry
by the State Party
and UNICEF. The State Party shall nonetheless increase the budget and staff of
the Line Ministry and train its
personnel in information gathering and data
processing mechanisms in order to make them productive.
7. Dissemination, Training and Awareness Raising
- Finally,
under the rubric of General Measures of Implementation, the State Party notes
the respective recommendations of the Committee’s
concluding observations
on the State Party’s reports on the CRC, OPSC and OPAC regarding the lack
of training and limited dissemination
of child protection and promotion issues
save the State Party’s efforts at raising awareness on provisions of the
Child Rights
Act and the CRC through sensitization campaigns and regular
training programmes conducted for CP-Com members. The State Party further
notes
the need to increase training of staff in the Line Ministry and among its CP-Com
Partners in order to disseminate ideas and
information as well as sensitize the
public on child protection and development issues. The State Party especially
acknowledges that
the Line Ministry has, with support from key Partners such as
UNICEF, Plan International and Justice Sector Development Programme
(JSDP),
simplified and disseminated the Child Rights Act into lucid English absenting
technical terminologies. The Line Ministry
will increase its cooperation with
the Child Forum Network (CFN) in conducting community sensitization among peer
groups via radio.
III. General principles on the CRC and its
Optional Protocols (Compliance with Articles 2, 3, 6 and 12 of the Provisions
of the CRC)
A. Non-Discrimination
- The
State Party notes the observation of the CRC Committee on the need to remove
discriminatory provisions from the Statute Books
of the country, including in
particular discriminatory laws relating to women and children contained in
section 27 (4)(d) of the
State Party’s 1991 Constitution touching and
concerning personal laws like adoption, marriage and divorce, burial and
property rights relating to devolution of estates
and inheritance rights. The
State Party is aware of the requirement for law reform and attendant referendum
to alter/reform the Constitution in this and other regards.
- However,
the State Party reports that several recent legislations have been enacted which
deeply undercut the provisions of the Constitution regarding personal customary
law, even though the Constitution remains the fundamental law. Section 27
of the Child Rights Act, for example, states that “no person shall deprive
a child
of reasonable provision out of the estate of a parent, whether or not
born in wedlock”. Also, the Sierra Leone Citizenship
Act (1973) has been
amended to grant not only dual citizenship to Sierra Leoneans falling into that
category but to also grant citizenship
by birth to a child directly through
his/her mother to the extent that the term “person of Negro African
descent” through
whom citizenship is gained in the legislation is now
construed as “a person whose mother or father and any of the grand parents
of the mother or father is or was a Negro of African
descent”.[43]
- Moreover,
the Persons with Disability Act, 2011 (Act No. 3) has been enacted for the
establishment of “the National Commission
for Persons with Disability, to
prohibit discrimination against [them], achieve equalization of opportunities
for [them] and to provide
for other related matters”. The National
Commission for Persons with Disability has been established by government.
Furthermore,
according to the Persons with Disability Act above, persons with
disability, including children with disability, shall enjoy the
following
rights: right to free education, protection from discrimination in educational
institutions, provision of free medical
services, compulsory screening at health
centres, and, inter alia, prohibition of denial of employment and protection
from discrimination
in employment.
- Additionally,
the Devolution of Estates Act, 2007 (Act No. 21) makes ample provision for
surviving spouses, children, parents, relatives
and other dependents of a person
who has died testate or intestate to benefit from that person’s estate.
The definition of
“child” in the Act includes “any child born
to the deceased while the deceased was unmarried and recognized by
the deceased
as his child”; “any child born to the deceased while the deceased
was married and the other parent of the
child was or is the lawful spouse of the
deceased”; “any child born to the deceased while the deceased was
married and
the child in question was recognized by the deceased and his spouse
as the child of the deceased”; and “any child adopted
by the
deceased under any applicable law”. Also, the definition of
“spouse” is further defined in the Act to include
an unmarried woman
who has cohabited with an unmarried man or vice versa as if they were in law
husband and wife for a period of
not less than five years immediately preceding
the death of either of them. The National Social Security and Insurance Trust
Act
(the NASSIT Act, 2001), similarly makes widows/widowers and their children
as primary beneficiaries to benefits due survivors of
a deceased NASSIT
Pensioner.
- Besides,
in order to provide for the development, wellbeing and education of especially
the girl child, section 34 of the Child Rights
Act, prohibits any form of
marriage, betrothal or dowry transaction with a person below 18 years. The
Education Act (2004) makes basic education (i.e. primary and junior secondary
schooling) compulsory for every child, to the extent a parent who
neglects to
send his/her child to school for basic education commits a penal offence at
law.[44] Moreover, the Statutory
Instrument setting out the assumption of functions by Local Governments, to wit,
“Local Government
(Assumption of Functions) Regulations, No. 13 of
2004” is founded on the core principle of non-discrimination to ensure and
maintain government’s decentralized but equal treatment of men, women and
children everywhere.
B. Best Interests of the Child
- The
State Party notes the observation and recommendation of the CRC Committee on the
need to appropriately integrate the principle
of the best interests of the child
into all actions, including governance actions regarding budget allocation,
legal provisions and
judicial and administrative decisions, projects and
programmes that impact on children. The State Party asserts that its Free
Healthcare
initiative for children aged under five and pregnant and lactating
mothers as well as its endeavours to leverage and enhance access
to education
for every child illustrate its determination to uphold the best interests
principle.
C. Right to Life, Survival and Development
- The
right to life is a fundamental right entrenched in the 1991 Constitution of
Sierra Leone. Though subject to certain judicial qualifications and
restrictions, the right to life for children (i.e. persons
below 18 years)
and pregnant women is inalienable and legally
protected.[45] To this end, the
Child Rights Act provides that “every child has the right to life and to
survival and development to the maximum
extent possible”; primary
responsibility for the enjoyment of this right is placed on the parents/guardian
of the child to
be assisted by the State Party in case of
need.[46]
- The
State Party also notes the observation and recommendation of the CRC Committee
on the issue of child survival and development
and food security. High records
of infant and maternal mortalities within the country despite their reduction
over the years coupled
with high teenage pregnancies, low nutrition levels among
children, the need for further improvement to accessing clean water both
in the
urban and rural areas and the high rate of poverty affecting women and children
nationally as highlighted in UNICEF’s
Situation Analysis of the Status
of Children in Sierra Leone, 2011, are disturbing realities when pitched
against the sustained endeavors by the State Party to improve the lives and
livelihood of
its people. The State Party shall therefore continue to engage and
energize the second priority in its PRSP II (Agenda for Change)
development
scheme aimed at increased agricultural production, especially among the rural
poor small farm-holders; promoting diversified
commercial agriculture through
the private sector and improving agricultural research and food management
systems; as well as, inter
alia, efficiently managing and exploiting the
country’s fisheries and marine resources.
- The
State Party recognizes that its School Feeding Programme coordinated by the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)
has benefitted 252,582
pupils, of which 122,673 are girls and 130,157 are boys, in a total of 1,365
World Food Programme (WFP)-assisted
schools
nationwide.[47] The Line Ministry
will also continue to engage its CP-Com Partners in providing additional
food/nutritional support to pupils at
all levels.
D. Respect for
the Views of Children
- In
response to the observation and recommendation of the CRC Committee on the need
to implement Article 12 of the CRC, the State Party
maintains that she has
demonstrated continued respect for the views of children at all levels, both in
terms of free expression through
various media and in terms of ensuring that
those views are noted, respected and, where appropriate, incorporated into
national plans,
policies and programmes. CFN aforementioned, comprising a group
of 35 children between the ages of 12 and 18, produced and presented
its own
version of the country report on Children to the CRC Committee in 2006 entitled
“This is the way we see
it”.[48] In the said Report,
the children are said to have interviewed and administered 4,000 questionnaires
– 3,000 among school children
and 1,000 among children who have not been
to school in 10 out of the 12 districts in the country. Among the key areas
covered in
the Report (education, health, child labour, child sexual abuse and
exploitation, and children’s participation in issues),
education was
selected as key priority for child development, followed by health. CFN lamented
that at home, in the community and
at school, children are not involved in
decision-making and expressed their desire to participate in especially matters
concerning
their overall
welfare.[49]
- The
State Party reports that the Line Ministry has continued to engage children at
various fora, working especially with CFN on child
protection and advancement
matters. CFN continues to operate radio programmes nationally, expressing their
views on major issues
affecting their rights and wellbeing. The Child Rights Act
was also simplified by the Ministry’s Partners (UNICEF and JSDP)
for easy
comprehension by children.
IV. Civil rights and freedoms
(Compliance with Articles 7, 8,
13-17 and 37(a) of the Provisions of
the CRC)
A. Birth Registration
- The
State Party takes into consideration the observation of the CRC Committee on
birth registration and is pleased to report that,
through the Free Health Care
Initiative (FHCI) and other ongoing birth registration processes, the total
birth registration for children
below five years of age has improved from 48% in
2005 to 78% in 2010.[50] The FHC-I
has also helped in eradicating one of the fundamental causes of low birth
registration, to wit, lack of knowledge on how
to register children. Today,
birth registration is as high in the provincial districts as it is high in the
country’s western
area.
- The
State Party reports that the Child Rights Act provides as a matter of law that
“each parent shall be responsible for the
registration of the birth of
their child and the names of both parents shall appear on the birth certificate
except when the father
of the child is unknown to the
mother”.[51] In the above
regard and noting further that the right to name and nationality begins with
birth registration, an assessment of the
Birth Registration system was done in
2010 and a national strategic plan developed to address the issues identified at
all levels.
Training of births and deaths registrars is also a key requirement
in ensuring proper registration and record-keeping of births and
deaths
statistics nationally. The Birth and Death Registration Act of 1983 was also
reviewed and a Births and Deaths Policy drafted.
B. Corporal
Punishment
- The
State Party notes the CRC Committee’s observation and recommendation on
the practice of corporal punishment at homes. Schools
and other institutions
even though the Child Rights Act has repealed the practice (at section
33 (3) of the Act). The State Party
also recalls the report by UNICEF that
in 2010,[52] 81.7% of children
between 2-14 years of age were subjected to at least one form of psychological
or physical punishment by their
mothers, caretakers or other household members,
down from 92% in 2005.
- The
State Party undertakes to raise further national awareness on the repealing of
the Corporal Punishment Act (Chapter 41 of the
Laws of Sierra Leone) as
well as the prohibition of practices akin to corporal punishment at homes,
schools and correctional institutions
for children. The State Party similarly
notes the provision in the Child Rights Act on “justifiable
correction” that
is reasonable in kind and degree and commensurate to the
age, physical and mental condition of the affected
child.[53] Justifiable correction
will enhance alternative disciplines consistent with the human dignity of
children.
C. Follow-up to the report of the independent expert
for the United Nations study on violence against children
- The
State Party notes the CRC Committee’s observation and recommendation on
prioritizing the elimination of all forms of violence
against children as well
as using the recommendations of the report of the independent expert for the
United Nations study on violence
against children (A/61/299) as a tool for
action, working with civil society, the Line Ministry’s CP-Com Partners
and children
to secure the protection of children against violence.
- To
the foregoing end, the State Party indicates that she has outlawed all forms of
violence against children by enacting the Child
Rights Act, which, as noted,
repeals corporal punishment and protects children from “torture or other
cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, including cultural practice
which dehumanizes or is injurious to the physical and mental welfare of a
child”
and prohibits the treatment of “a disabled child in an
undignified manner”;[54] the
Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act No. 20), which provides legal protection
for victims of domestic violence, including women and
children, against
“domestic violence” – namely, physical or sexual abuse,
economic abuse, emotional, verbal or
psychological abuse, sexual harassment and
intimidation, and any conduct that is harmful to the health, safety and
wellbeing of the
victim; the Anti-human Trafficking Act, 2005, which outlaws and
punishes all forms of human trafficking both within and across the
State Party;
and the Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which consolidates sexual offences generally
and increases the penalties for their
infringement. The State Party’s MEST
has also regulated the ethical and related behaviors of teachers by producing,
with support
from NGO Partners, the Code of Conduct for Teachers and Other
Educational Personnel in Sierra Leone, August 2009.
- The
Line Ministry undertakes to work with its CP-Com Partners, including the Police
and local and international organizations, to
implement and monitor the
implementation of the foregoing legislations as well as document relevant
occurrences and events.
V. Family environment and alternative
care (Compliance with Articles 5, 18 (paras. 1-2), 9-11, 19-21, 25, 27
and 39 of the CRC
A. Family environment
- The
State Party equally notes the comments and recommendation of the CRC Committee
on the need for the State Party to take all necessary
measures to ensure the
allocation of appropriate financial and other support to the Line Ministry and
Local Authorities in order
to support parents and guardians exercise their
responsibilities to their children and wards. The State Party undertakes to
provide
appropriate logistical support to the Line Ministry in this regard and
shall also put required mechanisms in place towards the creation
of a Trust Fund
into which a proportion of proceeds from non-renewable resources could be put
for a period of thirty years in order
to support and advance child rights and
welfare, pursuant to section 40 (2) of the Child Rights Act.
B. Children without Parental Care
- In
responding to the observation and recommendation of the CRC Committee on
children without parental care, inclusive of those orphaned
by HIV/AIDS, the
State Party reiterates the preparation of the “National Alternative Care
Policy for Children”, inter
alia, to “guide Government, NGOs and
communities on the protection of children involved in adoption processes,
fostering, independent
living or [those] living in children’s
homes”. Also, the Line Ministry’s Alternative Care Committee (which
replaces
the Task Force on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children) has continued
to monitor the situation affecting orphans and other vulnerable
children,
including internally displaced and trafficked children, in view of their
exposure to higher levels of abuse, minimal or
non-education and exploitation.
The State Party, however, views with concern the report by UNICEF that as at
2010 about 22% of children
aged 0-17 years are estimated as not living with a
biological parent and that the proportion is higher in urban locations compared
to rural ones.[55] The State Party
undertakes to fully address this.
- Regarding
the treatment of HIV/AIDS, the State Party notes the improvements made in
treating/responding to the epidemic considering
UNICEF’s account of the
fact that “there was an improvement in the number of people living with
HIV receiving Anti-Retroviral
(ARV) treatment from 295 in 2005 to 3,660 in 2009
while [the] number of treatment sites increased from 16 in 2005 to 116 in
2009”.[56] However, the State
Party is gravely concerned at reports that while about 52% of adults receive ARV
treatment, only about 5% of the
children who require ARV were receiving
treatment as at 2010; and that about “12.8% of children aged 0-17 years
had one or
both parents dead” with the prevalence level higher in the
urban areas.[57] The State Party,
however, states that the HIV/AIDS Secretariat has, with support from Global Fund
organization, supported the continued
treatment of all categories of HIV/AIDS
affected persons, including children.
- Besides,
apart from operating the HIV/AIDS Secretariat under the supervision of the
Office of the President for several years with
decentralized levels of operation
in the rural areas, the State Party enacted the Prevention and Control of HIV
and AIDS Act, 2007
(Act No. 8) to “provide for the prevention,
management and control of HIV and AIDS, for the treatment, counselling, support
and care for persons infected with, affected by or at risk of HIV and AIDS
infection and for other related
matters”.[58] The Act requires
Local Councils to provide community-based HIV prevention and care services
within their localities in collaboration
with government agencies, NGOs and
persons living with or at risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS. It also requires
Government to
make livelihood and self-help and cooperative programmes available
and accessible to persons living with the disease and to explore
the possibility
of providing insurance coverage for
them.[59] The Line Ministry is thus
collaborating with the HIV/AIDS Secretariat in reaching out to orphans and
children affected by the spread
of the epidemic through a focal person attached
to the Secretariat.
C. Residential and Foster Care
- The
State Party notes the CRC Committee’s comments and recommendation the
residential and foster care and is alive to the staff
and budgetary constraints
faced by the Ministry in conducting periodic checks on various care placements.
Notwithstanding, available
staff and personnel at the Ministry are guided by
provisions in the Child Rights Act on fostering and institutional/residential
care
placement. Section 105 of the Act deals with foster-care placement
while Part VII deals with institutionalized care and related matters.
In
particular, it is provided that a committee comprising a probation officer,
social welfare officer, the person in charge of an
approved residential home and
two other individuals from the community having interest in the welfare of
children and selected by
the District Council can place a child with a foster
parent who is above 21 years, is of high moral integrity and is willing to care
for the welfare of the child in need of
care.[60]
- Also,
in the case of approved residential homes, the Child Rights Act provides that
the Government may establish such homes for the
care of children in areas which
the Minister responsible for the Line Ministry may determine and that the
District Council shall
monitor and inspect the homes within its area of
authority.[61] The Line Ministry
further reports that in 2008, a research entitled “Mapping of the
Residential Care Facilities for Children
in Sierra
Leone”[62] was undertaken with
the following key findings:1) that no national guidelines existed for the
operation of a total of 48 residential
homes for children (with 14 in the
western urban area, 19 western rural area; 7 in the northern province; 6 in the
southern province
and 2 in the eastern province); 2) that care at the homes
was poor with no family tracing by care-givers or care review initiatives
even
though the homes had a total of 1,871 children; and, inter alia, 3) that a
number of the residential homes were unlicensed and
that the Line Ministry was
unable to effectively monitor the said homes. In order to address this grim
situation, the Line Ministry
produced the National Alternative Care Policy
for Children to address the needs of children in approved residential homes
by establishing minimum standards for their operation as well as train
appropriate personnel to monitor and report on such homes. In a further bid to
address the situation, the Line Ministry conducted
a national assessment of
residential homes with the support of the Local Councils in the affected area
between 2009 and 2011 and
reunited 360 children with their families. The
residential homes found to have defaulted by operating below the minimum
standards
were given deadlines to stop
operations.
D. Adoption
- The
State Party notes the recommendations of the CRC Committee under this rubric,
acknowledging that the Adoption Act of 1989 is out-of-date
and in need of
review. In this regard and following “Government’s White Paper on
the Findings and Recommendations of
the Justice Showers Commission of Inquiry on
the HANCI-MAPS Adoption” issued under the hand of the Attorney General of
Sierra
Leone on the 13 April, 2012, the State Party undertook to take
appropriate measures to review the Adoption Act and accede to the
1993 Hague
Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry
Adoption. This includes ensuring that
where the child to be adopted is capable
of understanding the adoption process, his/her opinion shall be considered
before the decision
on the adoption is taken. The State Party adopted the
recommendations of the Justice Showers Commission of Inquiry in the following
manner:
i) That application for leave to take an adopted child out
of Sierra Leone made to the High Court is to be granted only on cause shown
to
the satisfaction of the Court;
ii) That adequate provision be made to ensure that the safeguards provided in
the Adoption Act are respected and honored in cases
where inter-country adoption
applications are made and that such applications conform with the procedural
requirements provided for
in the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children
and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, for inter-country
Adoption;
iii) That the Government be obliged to enter into bi-lateral or multi-lateral
arrangements with other Governments who are signatories
to the Convention to
enhance collaboration with the competent authorities of those States;
iv) That Government takes all appropriate measures through public bodies to
provide adequate information on the law regulating adoption
in Sierra Leone, to
the various communities in the country;
v) That adequate preventive provision is made in the new Adoption Bill to act
as deterrent for those likely to contravene the adoption
law;
vi) That adequate steps be taken by Government or other public bodies to
promote the development of adoption counselling and post-adoption
services or
measures;
vii) That provision should be made in the Adoption Bill for a social worker
or, in the case of adoptees living outside Sierra Leone,
the Sierra Leone
Embassy, to monitor adoptees to ensure that their welfare is being catered
for;
viii) That the persons whose consent is necessary for any adoption are
sufficiently counselled and informed of the effect of their
consent and in
particular that the adoption will result in the termination of any legal
relationship between them or their relatives
as applicable and the children;
ix) That all adoptions are to be done in the best interest of the
children;
x) That penalties for contravention of a provision of the Bill be
strengthened to serve as a deterrent;
xi) That in the event that placement agreement provided for in the Bill is
entered into with Sierra Leoneans not habitually resident
in Sierra Leone,
provision should be made for the supervision of the placement of the child
involved in the applicant’s country;
xii) That the Bill should provide for the preparation of a report on the
adopted child to establish his/her adoptability and also
the background, social
environment, family history, medical history and any special needs of the child
prior to the application for
the adoption of the child; and
xiii) That a central authority (or regulatory or supervisory body) be
established by the Bill in accordance with Part IV of the 1993
Hague Convention
on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry
Adoption.
E. Child Abuse and Neglect
- Regarding
the observations and recommendations of the CRC Committee on the abuse and
neglect of children in Sierra Leone, the State
Party reports that, as indicated
in this report, she has enacted recent legislations like the Domestic Violence
Act, 2007 and the
Child Rights Act and also is in the process of passing the
Sexual Offences Act, 2012 to deal with child abuse, neglect and abandonment,
with stringent penalties attached
thereto.[63] The State Party notes
the necessity for a mandatory reporting system in order to curb abuse and
violence against children and promote
their wellbeing. In particular the Line
Ministry works with the FSU of the Sierra Leone Police in investigating and
prosecuting the
ill-treatment and neglect of children as well as to initiate
processes leading to the payment of child support and maintenance for
children
whose parents are separated or divorced from each other. The Ministry also works
with CP-Com Partners, like Don Bosco International,
the Rainbo Centre for
Children and Defence for Children International Sierra Leone section towards
the rehabilitation of child victims.
VI. Basic Health and
Welfare of Children (Compliance with Articles 6, 18 (para. 3), 23, 24,
26
and 27 (paras. 1-3) of the CRC)
A. Children with Disabilities
- The
State Party equally notes the observations, concerns and recommendations of the
CRC Committee on the needs of children with disabilities
within the State Party
and in response notes as follows:
i) That in terms of legislation,
the State Party states that she, in 2008, became a party to the Convention on
the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities and that, in 2011, she passed into law
the Persons with Disability Act already referred to in this report, which
provides for the setting up of a National Commission for Persons with
Disabilities and which has now been established, achieve equal
opportunities for
them, set up a National Development Fund for them in line with the Act, and,
inter alia, provide for their basic
rights and welfare, including their right to
free education and facilities for learning, protection from discrimination in
educational
institutions, provision of free medical services for them,
compulsory screening at health centres as may be appropriate, and, inter
alia,
prohibits their denial of employment and grants them protection from
discrimination at work. Other complementary laws enacted
to give effect to the
welfare of the disabled also include, the Child Rights Act, which prohibits the
treatment of disabled children
in an undignified manner; the National Youth
Commission Act, 2009, which as noted in this report creates the National Youth
Commission
to empower youth to develop their potentials, creativity and skills
for national development; the Prevention and Control of HIV and
AIDS Act, 2007,
which, among other things, provides for the treatment, counselling, support and
care for persons infected with, affected
by or are at risk of infection by HIV
and AIDS; and the National Drugs Control Act, 2008, which deals with control and
prevention
of abuse of narcotic drugs and related issues;
ii) That the Special Needs Education Unit for the establishment of Special
Schools in MEST, supported by the Leonard Cheshire Home
institution, has
prepared a six-module curriculum for the training of teachers in teaching pupils
with disabilities, set up a computer
and braille training centre, and provided
quarterly subventions to 12 Special Schools as well as braille textbooks for
four primary
schools. Also, the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone reportedly
trains teachers and researchers on special needs courses. The
Line Ministry is
similarly in the process of putting together the National Policy for the
Protection of Persons with Disabilities;
iii) That apart from integrating protection of children with disabilities
into mainstream issues affecting children generally, especially
those with
vulnerabilities, the State Party is working assiduously towards establishing a
National Commission and a National Development
Fund for Persons with
Disabilities in line with the Act and within the country’s budgetary
limits;
iv) That the State Party, together with its CP-Com Partners, undertakes to
continue to carry out awareness and sensitization campaigns
about the rights and
special needs of children with disabilities as well as train and recruit
professional staff to develop their
potentials and protect their rights as
well.
B. Right to Health and Access to Health Services
- The
State Party additionally notes the deep concerns and recommendations for
improvement of the health sector and health services
for children nationally,
and asserts that, since the introduction of FHC-I by the Government in April
2010, drastic efforts have
been made and far-reaching activities undertaken to
change the gloomy health climate for children and mothers, especially under five
children and pregnant and lactating women. To this end, the State Party notes
the following improvements to the health sector and
delivery
services:
i) That as at 2011, 1,206,224 under-five children had
benefitted from the FHC policy (including 605,225 males and 600,999
females).[64] To this end, UNICEF
reported that as at 2010, under-five mortality had declined from 267 deaths in
1,000 live births in 2005 to 217
deaths in 1,000 live
births.[65] This figure is in fact
expected to show drastic reduction in view of greater successes in the FHC
programme;
ii) That also as at the year 2011, there was 61% reduction recorded in
maternal case fatalities and 45% increase in health facility
delivery at
community level, even though there existed a 150% increase in maternal
complications, which were fully managed by the
FHC programme. Also, women making
at least one ante-natal care consultation increased by 35% within the first 12
months of the introduction
of the FHC policy, compared to the previous year
(2009);[66]
iii) That the number of acceptors of modern family planning methods at
facilities rose by 1,405 in the first year of the FHC programme;
and that the
proportion of children who were fully vaccinated before their first birthday
during the 12 months of the FHC programme
declined to 76% compared to 88%
during the pre-FHC programme
period;[67]
iv) That by 2011, the proportion of children below five years of age who had
been treated with Artesunate for malaria nearly tripled
and that the
Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition scheme was provided for 30,000
health beneficiaries.[68] UNICEF
also reports that “near-universal coverage with long lasting insecticide
treated nets was achieved through the distribution
of 3.2 million nets
countrywide”; the organization, however, notes that behavioral tendencies
by pregnant and lactating women
towards the use of the nets show poor, reduced
or non-usage by many households in especially the urban areas of the
country;[69]
v) UNICEF similarly recorded that there was a dramatic reduction in the case
fatality rate for malaria in public hospitals by approximately
90%;[70]
vi) That following the HFI, the total workforce in the public health sector
increased from 7,164 in 2009 to 8,125 in 2010, representing
a 13.4% increase in
the workforce. Notwithstanding this, however, the country still faces critical
shortage of midwives, doctors,
laboratory technicians and health information
officers over and above the trained and qualified nurses available. To this end
too,
the health sector has embarked on innovative schemes, such as creating
alternative cadres like nurse anesthetists, cataract surgeons,
maternal and
child health aides as well as contracting doctors and midwives abroad through
the South-South Corporation scheme;
vii) In addition to the FHC programme, there has been considerable increase
in access to clean water as about 57% of people used improved
water sources in
2010 compared to 47% in 2005, with reduced access recorded in certain rural
districts like Kambia, Moyamba, Bonthe
and
Tonkolili.[71] In view of the
existing water and sanitation challenges faced, in spite of massive water
resources available in the country, the
Energy and Water Resources sector,
working in accordance with the country’s National Water and Sanitation
Policy, has targeted
74% of the population for improved drinking water supply
and 66% for adequate sanitation by the year
2015.[72]
- Notwithstanding
the foregoing, the State Party is aware that the challenges in the general
health delivery sector for especially persons
below 18 years are huge. It is
noted also that even though the maternal mortality rate in the country has
declined to 857 maternal
deaths per 100,000 live births, it remains high when
compared with the projected Millennium Development Goals targeted record of
450
per every 100,000 live births.[73]
The State Party acknowledges as well that the increase in teenage pregnancies
nationally is contributing to fatalities among children
due to the weak
physiological state of the girl mothers, occasioned by under-nutrition with a
low body mass index.[74] It is
similarly disturbing that chronic malnutrition is reported to persist at 44.4%
among under-five children leading to stunted
growth.[75]
- In
order to reverse the overall health situation facing the country, including
children, the State Party has re-prioritized the health
sector in its projected
PRSP III or “Agenda for Prosperity”. At a projected budget of
$1,071,381,948, the Agenda for
Prosperity seeks to strengthen integrated
healthcare services delivery nationally, improve human resource for quality
healthcare
delivery, improve drugs and medical technology supply, strengthen
health sector governance, strengthen healthcare financing, strengthen
monitoring
and supervision through health information management systems, and strengthen
infrastructural development for effective
health service
delivery.[76] Also, in order to keep
a check on budget allocation and expenditure in the health sector, it is
reported that Save the Children,
one of the Line Ministry’s partner
organizations, has introduced a budget tracking and expenditure scheme to
sustain the FHI
Programme.
C. Adolescent Health
- The
State Party notes the observations and recommendations of the CRC Committee on
the above subject and repeats its response under
the right to health and access
to health services above. In view of the increase in teenage pregnancies, the
State Party undertakes
to increase awareness among teenage boys and girls, on
the merits of condom usage, birth control, family planning and, above all,
quality education. An improvement in the quality and quantity of health delivery
as estimated under the State Party’s PRSP
III (Agenda for Prosperity)
will curtail adolescent pregnancies and school drop-outs and advance basic
education as well. The State
Party appreciates sustained efforts by UNICEF and
other development agencies in highlighting and reporting the increase in teenage
pregnancies and its effects on child survival and
development,[77] considering that
the concept had long been under-reported. In order to address this situation,
the Ministry of Health and Sanitation
prepared the “National Standards for
Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services (2011)” as “a tool to
accelerate
the implementation of the adolescent health strategic plan” for
quality health service provision. Various partner organizations
like Christian
Brothers working in Pujehun District and the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) have respectively focused, inter
alia, on reintegrating and training
affected children by setting up skills training centres at district level for
them as well as
supporting law enforcement institutions (like the FSUs) to
protect victims from further abuse. The Line Ministry undertakes to continue
to
conduct national sensitization on preventing adolescent pregnancies and drop-out
in schools.
- With
reference to substance abuse, the State Party highlights the enactment of the
National Drugs Control Act, 2008, to control and
prevent abuse of narcotic drugs
and related issues as noted earlier. The establishment of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency
coupled with attendant ongoing awareness-raising and
sensitization campaigns on drugs and substance abuse would assist in addressing
problems of adolescent health.
D. Harmful Traditional
Practices
- The
State Party notes the observations and recommendations of the CRC Committee on
the above issue as well as the Committee’s
acknowledgement of the strides
made by the State Party to address, minimize and ultimately eradicate the
practice. The State Party
asserts that a culmination of recent legislation
enacted, including the Child Rights Act – sections 33(1) and 35 of which
prohibits
the application of degrading and dehumanizing treatment to children,
inclusive of cultural practices injurious to the child’s
physical and
mental wellbeing; as well as the Sexual Offences Act (2012), Prevention of
Cruelty to Children Act (Chapter 31 of 1960)
and the Domestic Violence Act
(2007) – all of which criminalize harmful sexual behaviour with children,
altogether indicate
the seriousness that the State Party attaches to efforts to
eliminate harmful traditional practices, like FGM. The 2011 UNICEF 2011
Situation Analysis further states that “there is evidence that the
practice [FGM is] slowly losing support, with 72% of the
women surveyed in 2010
wanting the practice to continue, compared to 86% in
2005”.[78] Thus, even though
the practice is high, the indication is that it is gradually losing support
among participants.[79]
- The
State Party acknowledges efforts by the Human Rights Commission(HRC) in stopping
and outlawing forced initiations of girls into
secret societies leading to FGM.
In particular it is noted that the HRC, working with partner institutions,
succeeded in having certain
traditional leaders impose sanctions on the practice
and develop by-laws against the forced initiation of persons below 18 years
of
age in the Bondo/Sande
societies.[80] The
Commission’s advocacy and sensitizations on the subject as well as its
intervention in having two out of three girls freed
unharmed from forced
initiation is commendable. The UNFPA also works with women practitioners of FGM
(Soweis) to disengage them.
- The
State Party further recognizes that the memorandums of understanding prepared by
the Line Ministry and a local NGO, Advocacy Movement
Network, and entered into
with Paramount Chiefs, the FSUs and child welfare committees in certain
Chiefdoms of Sierra Leone covering
the Western Area, Kambia, Bo, Kailahun,
Bonthe, Pujehun and Port Loko Districts coupled with the Ministry’s
“National
Referral Protocol on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) –
Pathways to Service Provision for Victims/Survivors of
GBV”[81] (which, inter alia,
ensures that “survivors/victims of GBV (inclusive of domestic and sexual
violence) receive prompt and coordinated
response from service providers”
such as free medical care and legal support), have altogether helped in curbing
harmful traditional
practices against children nationally.
- In
a bid to taking on board the recommendations of the CRC Committee on this
subject, the State Party further undertakes to continue
to engage practitioners
of FGM in seeking alternative livelihoods and pursuing positive traditional and
cultural practices that are
not injurious or harmful to the child’s health
and survival. The Line Ministry reports further that children have themselves
been involved in the campaign against FGM through the Child Rights Coalition by
admonishing FGM practitioners to desist from practices
that are injurious to and
against the best interests of the child.
E. HIV/AIDS
- The
State Party notes the concerns, observations and recommendations of the CRC
Committee on the above subject and in response thereto
repeats paragraph 96
to 98 of this report. In particular, the State Party reports that in addition to
setting up the HIV/AIDS Secretariat,
the operations of which are directly under
the Office of the President of Sierra Leone, and enacting as well the Prevention
and Control
of HIV and AIDS Act, 2007, sustained efforts have been made to
control the spread of the disease through sensitization and awareness
campaigns
as well as to treat and care for victims of and persons affected by the spread
of HIV/AIDS, including children and orphans.
- As
noted in the 2011 UNICEF Situation Analysis, the number of treatment sites for
preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS
grew within the country from
90 in 2006 to 514 in November, 2010; and that the number of pregnant women
tested for HIV and got their
results increased from 21,127 in 2006 to 99,256 in
2009[82] – being a massive
increase showing the extent of sensitization on the subject. Similarly, the
HIV/AIDS National Secretariat
is statutorily mandated to provide for and/or
treat orphans and other children affected by the spread of the disease.
- Moreover,
the following statistical information available from the HIV/AIDS National
Secretariat shed further light on efforts made
by the State Party to curtail the
spread of the disease as well as respond to the treatment of its victims:
1) the number of People
living with HIV who received anti-retroviral
treatment between 2010 and 2011 increased from 5,978 to 8,115; 2) the
number of condoms
distributed via the Secretariat increased from 8,973,640 to
13,718,864; 3) the number of pregnant women receiving complete course
of
ARV prophylaxis increased from 4,201 to 5,332; and 4) the number of
HIV/AIDS prevalence among antenatal clinic attendants decreased
from a baseline
of 3.5% in 2009 to a baseline of 3.2% in 2011. The State Party continues to urge
the HIV/AIDS National Secretariat
to fulfil its mandate and take on board the
concerns and recommendations of the CRC Committee.
F. Standard
of Living
- On
this subject, the State Party states that improvement in the standard of living
of every Sierra Leonean remains the key priority
of both the Agenda for Change
(PRSP II) covering the period 2008-2012 and the Agenda for Prosperity
(PRSP III) covering the period
2013-2017. The State Party hopes to achieve
this objective by focusing on the fourth key priority of Government in its PRSP
II, namely,
to “ensure sustainable human development through the provision
of improved social services”. The Government is also working
assiduously
to reduce youth employment estimated at 70% to the barest minimum level. It is
projected that pro-poor growth in the
agricultural and fisheries sectors, being
the second key priority of Government’s PRSP II, will increase
nutrition levels among
children, enhance food security and the quality of basic
education as well.
- On
the question of the provision of adequate maintenance fees and unfair conditions
for the receipt of such fees for abandoned or
separated wives and their
children, the State Party undertakes to review the existing legislation on
maintenance and enact new laws
to reflect current trends. The Line
Ministry’s Family Casework Unit mediates between disputing parties with a
view to providing
satisfactory maintenance for affected
children.
VII. Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities
(Compliance with Articles 28, 29 and 31 of the CRC)
Education
- The
State Party notes the observations and recommendations of the CRC Committee on
the education for children within the country and
in response thereto states as
follows:
i) That the enactment of the Child Rights Act further
reinforces provisions in the Education Act, 2004 on the right to education and
compulsory primary enrolment;
ii) Noting that only about 5.5% of children attended the first grade of
pre-school in 2010 and that only 13.9% of children between
3 and 5 years were
attending any form of organized early childhood education as reported by
UNICEF,[83] the Line Ministry and
MEST are urged to increase awareness among parents, guardians and the public at
large on the advantages of
pre-primary education for their children;
iii) There is increased access to and completion of primary school,
especially by girls and out-of-school children through the construction
by
Government of about 100 primary and 30 junior secondary public schools, in
addition to the existing structures. The State Party
reports that there is now a
near parity in the enrolment levels for girls and boys across the country, with
a 9% increase in the
primary school completion rate for
girls[84] and a gender parity index
of 1.04 for boys and girls attending primary schools as at
2010.[85] The Government has
continued to pay, through Local Councils, school fee subsidies for primary
schools nationally, which provides
for tuition and exam fees and funds the
procurement of textbooks and related learning
materials;[86]
iv) Notwithstanding late entry into grade one by some children in certain
locations, like Koinadugu, and due to their difficult financial
circumstances as
well, the State Party records a net primary attendance of 74% compared to
previous statistics of 69% of children
between 6 and 11 years attending
primary schools;[87]
v) Also, the proportion of children who reached grade 6 of those who entered
grade 1 stood at 93% in the year 2010 with a parity in
attendance rate for boys
and girls;[88]
vi) Regrettably, however, the attendance and completion rate for children
attending secondary school stood at 37% regarding school
attendance; 48% for
girls and 62% for boys regarding completion at the junior secondary school
level; and 18% for girls and 31% for
boys regarding completion rate at senior
secondary school, in both cases using the proxy completion rate for the 2010-11
National
School Census data.[89]
This situation is attributed both to drop-outs at schools due to teenage
pregnancies and other social factors as well as the low
quality of education
generally, which altogether continue to impact the overall poor performance of
pupils at public exams. Correspondingly,
the Ministry of Education has commenced
a national curriculum revision exercise and has provided more textbooks for
pupils through
funds from its development partners (International Development
Association/African Development Bank), thereby increasing the pupil/textbook
ratio at schools;[90]
vii) MEST is also pursuing capacity improvement programmes to improve the
quality of education by developing a Capacity Development
Strategy and
revisiting the appointment of Ministry Officials to senior level positions. The
Education Ministry is also strengthening
its Education Management Information
System as well as the management of its education records by, for example,
producing the Ministry’s
First School Census Report. It is also about to
complete its Teachers’ Records Management Improvement Project
Report;[91]
viii) Additionally, and as noted earlier, the State Party reports that its
School Feeding Programme coordinated by MEST has benefitted
252,582 pupils, of
which 122,673 are girls and 130,157 are boys, in a total of 1,365 WFP-assisted
schools nationwide;
ix) The State Party set up the Professor Gbamanja Commission of Enquiry in
2009 to assess the state of junior and secondary school
education in the country
and review the educational system as well. The Commission presented its report
to the President in March
2010, advancing several recommendations for the reform
of the education system, including the establishment of a Teachers Service
Commission and an Institute of Education, the banning of all access courses and
the removal of the two-shift system (as the afternoon
shift is not conducive for
learning), the reduction of subjects from nine to seven to enhance
concentration, the banning of extra
lessons, the reviewing of performance
contracts for Principals, as well as recommending that parents/guardians should
monitor their
children and wards in and out of school, and that Government
should set up a monitoring task force to complement the
exercise.[92]
- The
State Party issued a White Paper on 29 July 2010 accepting the
following:
a) Restructuring of the educational system from 6-3-3-4
to 6-3-4-4 in order to accommodate early childhood education and better prepare
pupils for university or advance education beginning this academic year
(2012-2013);
b) Criminalizing the illegal admission of pupils into secondary schools by
school authorities, including teachers, principals and
head teachers;
c) Phasing out the dual shift system at schools when additional classrooms
and facilities would have been developed, and shifting
the school hours to
2.30 p.m. with a lunch break of 45 minutes;
d) Maintaining extra-lessons for pupils at school premises but banning
syndicate classes held by teachers on such premises;
e) Maintaining payment of examinations for junior and senior secondary school
pupils as well as providing textbooks and other learning
materials for them;
and
f) Banning all access courses for tertiary
institutions.[93]
- The
State Party notes that even though the challenges facing the country’s
education system are huge and diverse, given the
country’s brutal civil
conflict, Government is determined to overcome them constructively. Inherent in
these challenges is
the need to provide appropriate and adequate science
laboratories as well as recreational facilities/play grounds for pupils at
schools
and parks. Notwithstanding, improvements in education for girls is
especially captured in the 2011 UNICEF Situation Analysis as follows:
“[t]he Government policy of free education for girls for primary and
subsidies for junior secondary school[s] has helped to
make education accessible
to lower income groups”[94]
and that “[i]n several ways, the actual position of girls and women in
society has improved. In some places, the role of microcredit
and business
support for women has contributed to their relative economic empowerment. The
value of education for girls is appreciated
by more parents, including fathers
who dread early dropout and pregnancy of their
daughters”.[95]
VIII. Special
Protection Measures (Compliance with Articles 22, 38, 39, 40, 37(b) and (d), 30
and 32-36 the CRC)
A. Unaccompanied, Refugee and Internally Displaced Children
- The
State Party again notes the observations and recommendations of the CRC
Committee on the various protection measures enumerated
and with regards to
unaccompanied, refugee and internally displaced children, indicates as
follows:
i) That all officially internally displaced children have
been resettled and re-integrated into society, leading to the dissolution
of the
National Commission for War-Affected Children in order to give way to the
formation of a National Commission for Children
(NCC), the formation of which is
under way;
ii) That in order to protect refugee children, separated or unaccompanied
minors, the State Party has enacted the Refugees Protection
Act, 2007 (Act
No. 6), section 9 of which provides special protection to female
refugee applicants and separated/unaccompanied minors
by granting them the right
to a female interpreter and appropriate treatment (in the case of refugee women)
as well as the right
to an independent and authorized representative to provide
for the best interests of separated or unaccompanied refugee children,
in
addition to other appropriate administrative procedures applicable to them
within the country.
B. Economic Exploitation, including Child Labour
- In
response to the CRC Committee’s observations and recommendations on the
above subject, the State Party firstly, states that
it has since the 10 June,
2011 ratified ILO Conventions 138 (on the Minimum Age for Admission to
Employment) and 182 (on the Prohibition
and Immediate Action for the Elimination
of the Worst Forms of Child Labour), thus making the State Party effectively one
of the
many countries to have ratified seven of the fundamental Conventions of
the ILO. Moreover, as noted earlier, the Ministry of Labour
and Social Security
(MLSS) working in collaboration with the Line Ministry is developing a
“National Action Plan for the Elimination
of Worst Forms of Child Labour
(2013-2016)” to address specific forms of labour common among children,
including the areas
of agriculture (farming), mining (sand and alluvial mining),
child prostitution, domestic services and children’s involvement
in
urban/informal economies.
- Furthermore,
the State Party reports that section 32 of the Child Rights Act prohibits
subjecting a child to any form of exploitative
labour, inclusive of any labour
which deprives the child of its health, education or development. The State
Party also reports an
increase in the number of children involved in child
labour who attended school between the periods 2005 to
2010,[96] with UNICEF’s
statistics showing that by 2010, 76.3% of children affected by child labour
attended school out of a total of
49.8% of children involved in child
labour.[97] Out of those attending
school, 76.1% are male while 76.5% are female. This shows an increased tendency
by parents to send their children
and wards to school in spite of their economic
situations at home.
- The
State Party is particularly concerned that customary law and traditional
practices which govern the majority of Sierra Leoneans
do not directly abhor
child labour. In this regard, by-laws prohibiting various forms of child labour,
including child mining, begging,
hawking/peddling especially during school hours
child prostitution and, inter alia, domestic labour, have been developed at
community
level. Also, the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009 prohibits and
criminalizes the engagement of child labour in the mines by the holder
of a
mineral right by imposing a fine of $8,000 or its equivalent in Leones and/or a
maximum imprisonment term of two years on the
license
holder.[98]
- The
State Party additionally reports that the Ministry of Labour and Social
Security, supported with funds from the European Union,
launched the TACKLE
(Tackling Child Labour Through Education) Project to deal with/address child
labour issues and mainstream them
into education for children programmes. This
led to the establishment of the Child Labour National Technical Steering
Committee to
coordinate efforts, policies and programmes on child labour
matters. Accordingly, support has been provided by the Committee to local
stakeholders like the Freetown City Council, the Employers Federation of Sierra
Leone and Future for Children, Sierra Leone (a local
NGO) to role out by-laws
against child employment and labour as well as sensitize the public about the
dangers of involving children
in hazardous labour at the expense of their
education.[99]
C. Street
Children
- Under
this rubric, the State Party notes the observations and recommendations of the
CRC Committee on the need to adopt and all-embracing
“approach,
legislation and policy backed, by social action, for all disadvantaged
children”. In this regard, the State
reports that the Line Ministry has
been involved in ongoing sensitization programmes aimed at curbing the dangers
and threats posed
to the survival and wellbeing of street children and other
children in need of care and protection. The State Party repeats its submissions
in paragraph 96 of this report regarding its efforts at addressing the problems
and challenges facing children without parental care,
and the National
Alternative Care Policy for Children prepared in that respect. The State Party
commends the efforts of the Line
Ministry’s CP-Com Partners, including the
Don Bosco Children’s Home, HANCI, GOAL and DCI-Sierra Leone, among others,
on their several efforts at addressing the street-child phenomenon within the
country. In a pilot Project undertaken by the Line
Ministry between August 2010
and November 2012 in the Western Area and Makeni (Northern Province), 350
children including 250 boys
and 90 girls all between the ages of 10 and 17 were
targeted for interim care and reunification with their parents/guardians.
Education
and placement in residential homes for children prone to street life
were, inter alia, identified as long-term remedies to the street
children
scenario. Also, the National Social Protection Policy is designed to
additionally respond to the needs of vulnerable and
disadvantaged children,
including those on the streets.
- The
State Party is cognizant of the provisions of section 40 (1) of the Child
Rights Act on the requirement by “the [Line Ministry
to] implement
policies and programmes for childcare services to help working parents carry out
employment and other work-related
obligations and necessary activities without
unnecessarily harming the best interests of the child”. These policies and
programmes
are part of a broad set of objectives and goals anticipated in the
State Party’s PRSP II and III towards the provision of sustainable
social services for human development as noted in this report.
- Accordingly,
the State Party increased its support to welfare institutions that mostly cater
for the needs of children in need of
care and protection or children in
difficult circumstances from 349.9 Million Leones in 2010 to 562.0 Million
Leones in 2011. Also,
the support for child orphans was increased from 79.0
Million Leones in 2010 to 879.0 Million Leones in 2011; while the non-salary
non-interest expenditure budget for general services towards children and women
by the Line Ministry was increased from 396.3 Million
Leones in 2010 to 480.0
Million Leones in 2011.[100]
Notwithstanding, the State Party notes the concerns of the Line Ministry that
budgeted moneys are often late in coming, hence impacting
periodic development
programmes outlined by the Ministry.
D. Sexual Exploitation and
Abuse
- In
response to the CRC Committee’s observations and recommendations on sexual
exploitation and abuse of children as well as
the Committee’s general
observations and recommendations on the State Party’s report on its
implementation of OPSC, the
State Party, as indicated in this report, notes that
she has, in addition to the Child Rights Act which sets out the minimum age
of
marriage at 18 and prohibits forceful betrothal and forced/arranged marriages;
and prepared the Sexual Offences Bill of 2012 for
legislative approval. The said
Bill, as already noted in this report, deals with and addresses sexual offences,
including those against
children, and increases the penalties for infringement.
It is hoped that sustained dissemination/sensitization of the contents of
the
Bill when enacted will help reduce incidents of sexual violence and abuse of
children and women as well as curb child prostitution
and pornography. The Line
Ministry’s National Referral Protocol on GBV outlines care and
rehabilitative measures accorded victims
and survivors of sexual and domestic
violence, including affected children. The Protocol also sets out an
inter-ministerial and inter-sectorial
approach to GBV matters by seeking the
cooperation and involvement of key Ministries and institutions like the
Ministries of Health,
Finance, Education, Internal Affairs, Local Government,
the FSUs and, inter alia, the Judiciary and Civil Society Groups in tackling
and
helping to curb violence against women and children.
- The
State Party reports the Line Ministry has developed and launched the
“Sierra Leone National Action Plan on GBV (September
2012)”, which
highlights various pillars aimed at providing for victims, prosecuting
perpetrators and preventing GBV nationally.
The State Party also notes the
robust handling of sexual offences matters by the Law Officers’ Department
and the Judiciary
of Sierra Leone in recent years. The setting up of the
“special courts” at the magisterial and high court levels which
sit
on Saturdays inclusive to deal with sexual and related offences, especially
against children, has led to increased prosecution
and timely disposition of
such matters. Committal proceedings involving GBV offences now take only a few
weeks instead of years as
before, while criminal trials for GBV offences at the
high court last for a few months only. The State Party additionally reports
the
recent enactment of the Legal Aid Act, 2012towards complementing the rule of law
and providing for indigent persons.
E. Sale, Trafficking and
Abduction of Children
- In
similar vein, the State Party notes the observations and recommendations of the
CRC Committee on this subject as well as those
contained in its consideration of
the State Party’s report on the implementation of OPSC. In response to the
said concerns
and in addition to ongoing efforts by the State Party to review
and revise the Anti-Human Trafficking Act, 2005 and the Adoption
Act, 1989 as
well as reinforce implementation mechanisms, the Line Ministry has, in
collaboration with Law Enforcement Agencies and
its CPN
Partners[101], undertaken as
follows:
i) On efforts to stop or curtail the trafficking in
internally displaced children (IDPs) both regionally and internationally, the
Line Ministry has, in collaboration with one of its CP-Com Partners, Faith
Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST), set
up a centralized data base
to document movement of victims, analyze trafficking activities and monitor
trends internally and across
borders as well. Through this means, the Line
Ministry and FAAST reported that in 2010, a total of 34 minors were internally
trafficked
as against 20 in 2009; while 10 minors were trafficked across borders
in 2010 as against 3 in 2009. In both cases, domestic exploitation
(child
labour) and sexual exploitation accounted for more than 75% of child trafficking
matters, with victims being mostly between
the ages of 11 and 17 years;
ii) The National Task Force against Trafficking in Persons launched in June
2006 by the Line Ministry has also continued to operate
and explore strategies
that will curb TIP issues. One of the key points of intervention is to increase
contacts with grass-root communities
and sensitize them about the dangers of
trafficking. To this end, FAAST has, in addition to the numerous baseline
surveys undertaken
and memorandums of understanding on trafficking signed with
community leaders, produced and revised a total of six training manuals
for
volunteers, paralegals, service providers, law enforcement officers and civil
society groups on how to identify, respond to and
prevent TIP;
iii) Internationally too, the State Party has signed various international
Protocols/Instruments on trafficking and shall ensure their
timely ratification
by Parliament. These Instruments include, the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime
and the Protocol on the Smuggling of Migrants both
signed by the State Party in November 2001. Regionally, the ECOWAS Convention
on
Mutual Assistance in Legal Matters and the Joint ECOWAS/ECCAS Regional Plan of
Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons have been
and signed; while the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was signed and ratified in
2007;
iv) On the common practice of giving away children as wards (the men
pikin practice) as well as efforts to curb child prostitution, the sale of
children and child pornography, the State Party notes that the
Line
Ministry’s National Alternative Care Policy for Children is intended,
among other things, to deal with such practices
against minors;
v) In order to complement the efforts of the Line Ministry and its Partners
on TIP, the State Party undertakes to give added support
and capacity to the
Line Ministry.
F. Implementation of Juvenile Justice
- Regarding
the CRC Committee’s observations and recommendations on the implementation
of juvenile justice in the country, the
State Party firstly, reports that the
National Child Justice Strategy produced in
2006[102] has been revised and
updated into the National Child Justice Strategy (2013-2017) with a five-year
plan to “coordinate the
implementation of child justice reforms”
achieved over the years. The Strategy, which was developed through a broad
participatory
process involving key stakeholders at national and subnational
levels, “identifies key strategic outcomes to be achieved in
the coming
years, and sets out a concrete set of activities needed for incremental reform
of the national child justice system, in
line with the government’s
broader justice sector reform plans”. The outcomes include measures to
prevent juvenile delinquency
and violence, reform of the formal justice system,
diversion of child offenders and reform/rehabilitation of affected children.
Noting
further that the jurisdiction of the Family Court (which is yet to be
established) is limited to “matters concerning parentage,
custody, access
and maintenance of children” within the country, amendments shall be made
to the Child Rights Act 2007to, inter
alia, give a holistic mandate to the
Family Court to deal with all matters (civil and criminal) involving or relating
to children.
- The
National Child Justice Strategy was essentially designed to fill in the gaps
between the existing law(Chapter 44of the Laws of
Sierra Leone) and
international norms relative to juvenile justice and its administration, to wit,
the CRC, the African Children’s
Charter,[103] Beijing
Rules,[104] Riyadh
Guidelines[105] and the Havana
Rules.[106]
- Furthermore,
and as noted in this report, the Line Ministry has, together with UNICEF and
JSDP, developed “Age Assessment
Guidelines”[107] to assist
social welfare officers, law enforcement agencies and magistrates/judges
determine the ages of children within acceptable
local and international
standards based on their best interests. The Guidelines, when validated,
provides minimum benchmarks for
proof of age in the absence of a valid birth
certificate such as interviews with parents and/or guardians, historical events
surrounding
recollections of the child’s birth, school reports and
certificates, and medical and physiological tests on the child. The
Guidelines
are meant to ensure that an affected child is not criminalized before his/her
age is assessed.
- In
spite of the foregoing, the State Party is, however, concerned at the increase
in the number of children facing formal hearings
in major towns and cities
across the country as well as the lack of basic safeguards to protect and
promote their interests. The
State Party, for example, notes the report by
Defence for Children International, Sierra Leone section (DCISL) 2010 that
between
2007 and 2009, cases of children facing formal hearings increased from
3,678 to 5,309[108].The Line
Ministry similarly reports that in the year 2010, 376 boys and 52 girls passed
through the Remand Home (a transitory home
for child offenders), while 580 boys
and 39 girls were recorded for the year 2011.
- The
State Party also notes with concern the slow pace, and sometimes lack of, formal
judicial hearings in some parts of the country
where the required panel for a
functional juvenile is unavailable. It is recognized that this situation,
coupled with the limited
nature and extent of rehabilitation programmes at the
Approved School and Remand Homes in Freetown and Bo, create an unsatisfactory
picture of the juvenile justice situation in the country even where the Child
Rights Act has increased the minimum age of criminal
responsibility to
14 years.[109] In this
regard, and in order to address the fundamental concerns and observations of the
CRC Committee in its above-mentioned concluding
report, the Line Ministry and
its Partners have identified the following intervention areas:
i) To
use the Remand Home and Approved School as places of last resort for the
detention and reformation of the juvenile, and to equip
such institutions in a
manner that they can respond to necessary cases. Diversionary programmes through
Alternative Dispute Resolution
systems for less serious offences shall be
utilized;
ii) To approve and implement the use of the Age Assessment Guidelines at all
levels;
iii) To enforce strict observance of the minimum age of criminal
responsibility set out in Child Rights Act (14 years) and provide
alternative
remedies for child defaulters below the minimum age who offend or get involved
in criminal activities;
iv) To set up one Family Court for all matters affecting children (with a
civil or criminal jurisdiction) in every judicial district
of the country;
v) To provide regular refresher training for child justice managers,
including social workers, FSU Officers, magistrates and justices
of the peace,
court clerks, remand home and approved school officials and legal practitioners
interested in child justice.
G. Protection of Witnesses and Victims of Crimes
- The
State Party recognizes that child justice cannot be fully and comprehensively
administered without dealing with the subject of
protecting witnesses and
victims of crimes, especially for offences of a sexual nature as well as those
involving trafficking, sale
of children and child labour. The current Sexual
Offences Act, 2012 provides for “free medical treatment” and Police
assistance to victims as well as special protective measures for vulnerable
victims and witnesses before and during
trials.[110] Moreover, ongoing
reviews of the Anti-human Trafficking Act, 2005 and Adoption Act, 1989
contemplate witness and victim protection
measures for child witnesses,
survivors and victims of abuse, trafficking and illegal adoptions. This will
take into account the
child’s best interests, inclusive of his/her
psychological and physical wellbeing.
H. Ratification of
International Instruments
- The
State Party notes paragraphs 79 and 80 of the CRC Committee’s concluding
observations on its reporting obligations regarding
other international
instruments, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and
undertakes to more fully respond to this observation within the appropriate and
relevant
reporting context.
I. Follow-up and
Dissemination
- The
State Party notes that the Line Ministry and its Partners have undertaken
various activities aimed at disseminating and responding
to the CRC
Committee’s overall observations and recommendations on the state of child
rights and wellbeing in the country.
In this respect, the Line Ministry states
that, in addition to efforts undertaken by it and its CP-Com Partners in
generally disseminating
information regarding children, it shall continue to
work with all relevant stakeholders, including but not limited to its
development
Partners and members of CFN, to sensitize the public on child
rights, protection and welfare issues nationally. The State Party accordingly
undertakes to disseminate nationwide the CRC Committee’s concluding
observations and comments that this report
addresses.
IX. Conclusion
Challenges and Prospects for Recovery
- This
report shows that in spite of the gains made, especially in terms of enacting
laws to protect child rights and promote child
wellbeing generally, improving
access to education for all children especially for girls, and enhancing
healthcare for under-five
children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, the
challenges facing the State Party, inclusive of the Line Ministry, are numerous
and that decisive and progressive steps ought to be taken within a limited
timeframe to address the myriad problems. In summary,
the State Party reports
the following as key challenges facing the country in implementing programmes
and processes to develop the
wellbeing of children as well as the strategies it
shall adopt in tackling them:
1) The State Party admits capacity
constraints in the Line Ministry. To this end, current restructuring of offices
and personnel in
the Ministry shall be expedited. Training and appropriate
education for the Ministry’s personnel shall be pursued. This will,
inter
alia, assist management of a systems data base required for prompt service
delivery;
2) It is further recognized that in order to work efficiently and
effectively, the Line Ministry’s annual/periodic budget should
be
increased to meet its demands and needs. The State Party shall accordingly
revisit and increase the Line Ministry’s budget;
3) The relevant laws requiring reform, such as the Adoption Act, the
Anti-Human Trafficking Act, the Law on the administration of
Juvenile Justice,
the Education Act and inter alia the law on child maintenance, shall be revised
and placed before Parliament for ratification without delay;
4) Work on the establishment and functioning of the National Commission for
Children shall be prioritized and expedited with urgency;
5) Finally, in order to provide for every child, the State Party undertakes
to put required mechanisms in place towards the creation
of a Trust Fund into
which a proportion of proceeds from non-renewable resources could be put for a
period of thirty years, pursuant
to section 40 (2) of the Child Rights
Act.
[*] The present document is being issued
without formal editing.
[1] Presidential Assent for the
Act to become law was given by the President on 29 October 2008 as gazetted in
Statutory Instrument No.
15 of 2008 published on 4 December 2008. Also,
section 40(4) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone requires that all
treaties, conventions and agreements entered into by the President on behalf of
the country be
approved and domesticated by Parliament, the country’s
law-making body.
[2] CRC/C/SLE/2.
[3] CRC/C/SLE/Q/2/Add.1.
[4] CRC/C/SLE/CO/2.
[5] CRC/C/OPAC/SLE/1.
[6] CRC/C/OPSC/SLE/1.
[7] CRC/C/OPAC/SLE/CO/1 and
CRC/C/OPSC/SLE/CO/1.
[8] www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/.
[9] The Provisional Census
Report estimates the most populous districts to be Port Loko in the north
(247,463 people), Kenema in the
east (227,428 people) and Bo in the south
(209,754 people). The western Urban Area has about 127,917 people.
[10] At p. 2, quoting
Statistics Sierra Leone (2006) Analytical Report on Population Projection for
Sierra Leone.
[11] UNICEF Situation Analysis
(December 2011), ibid, p. 9.
[12] The Temnes are spread over
the Northern Province and the Mendes over the South-Eastern Provinces
respectively. The Western Area also
has quite a number of people belonging to
both tribes in addition to the many other tribes.
[13] December 2011 UNICEF
Situation Analysis, pp. 2-3.
[14] December 2011 UNICEF
Situation Analysis, p. 3.
[15] See the Government of
Sierra Leone’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper entitled “A National
Programme for Food Security,
Job Creation and Good Governance
(2005-2007)”.
[16] Knoema’s World Data
Atlas, available from www.knoema.com/atlas/Sierra-Leone.
[17] December 2011 UNICEF
Situation Analysis, p. 2, quoting Sierra Leone’s Millennium
Development Goals Report (2010) and Sierra
Leone’s PRSP II Report
(2008-2012).
[18] Government of Sierra Leone
document entitled “Overview of Restructuring the Ministry of Social
Welfare, Gender and Children’s
Affairs”, September, 2011.
[19] Government of Sierra Leone,
“Overview of Restructuring the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and
Children’s Affairs”,
September 2011.
[20] See draft memorandum of
understanding between Paramount Chiefs, the Family Support Units of the Sierra
Leone Police and the Child
Welfare Committees.
[21] Draft Sierra Leone Policy
on Alternative Care for Children, 22 May 2012.
[22] See Government of Sierra
Leone document: “Draft National Social Protection Policy: Combining Growth
with Equity for the Poor”,
February 2011, by Adam S. Platt and others.
[23] See Government of Sierra
Leone document: “National Referral Protocol on Gender-based Violence,
Pathways to Service Provision
for Victims/Survivors of GBV”.
[24] See Government of Sierra
Leone - Budget Profile for Financial Year 2008 to 2012 (Annex 1), p. 8.
[25] Ibid, p. 8.
[26] The CFN was launched by the
Minister of Children’s Affairs on the Day of the African Child (June 16)
2001.
[27] See section 11 of the Child
Rights Act, 2007.
[28] Section 3 of the Child
Rights Act, 2007.
[29] See Sierra Leone
Government’s White Paper issued by the Attorney General, Franklyn Kargbo
on 13 April 2012.
[30] Produced by Statistics
Sierra Leone and UNICEF, December 2011.
[31] Also produced in December
2011 by UNICEF.
[32] See African Union Doc.
CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), entered into force on 29 November 1999. In contrast with
CRC, the Charter defines
a “child” with clear certainty as any
person below the age of 18.
[33] See UNICEF’s World
Fit for Children, 2002, at paragraphs 31(a) and 4 respectively.
[34] The Goals were measured
against 1995 as the baseline year.
[35] See Sierra Leone Vision
2025, “Sweet Salone”, Government of Sierra Leone Document
(2003).
[36] Sections 23 to 34 of the
Child Rights Act, 2007.
[37] Section 36 of the Child
Rights Act, 2007.
[38] Sections 39 to 40 of the
Child Rights Act, 2007.
[39] Section 1, para. 76 of
the Revised Version of the Extant Terms of Service for All Ranks in the Sierra
Leone Armed Forces (16 February,
2006) removes the 17-and-half-years-or-below
age requirement in the 1961 Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces Act.
[40] Section 2 of the Child
Rights Act.
[41] See sections 25 and 32 of
the Child Rights Act.
[42] See sections 4 to 6 of the
Child Rights Act, 2007.
[43] See section 2 of the Sierra
Leone Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2006 (Act No. 11).
[44] The Education Act, 2004
– section 3. Section 4 of the Act deals primarily with non-discrimination
principle.
[45] Sections 215 and 216 of the
Criminal Procedure Act (1965) prohibits the application of death penalty to
children and pregnant women.
[46] Child Rights Act, section
23.
[47] Draft Report of the Social
Protection Working Group on Pillar Six of Government’s PRSP III
(2013-2017), p. 10 (food aid) with
modification by data collected from the
Ministry of Education’s School Feeding Coordination Unit.
[48] First report of Sierra
Leone for the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, 2006.
[49] See p. 11 of the
Report, “This is the way we see it” (2006).
[50] The UNICEF Situation
Analysis of the Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011,
pp. 29-30 quoting Statistics Sierra Leone,
2010 Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey Report.
[51] Child Rights Act, 2007
– section 26 (4).
[52] The UNICEF Situation
Analysis of the Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, ibid,
p. 33.
[53] Child Rights Act, 2007
– section 33 (2).
[54] Ibid, sections 33 and
30.
[55] Situation Analysis of the
Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, p. 33.
[56] Ibid, p. 18.
[57] Ibid, p. 19.
[58] See the short title of the
Act.
[59] See sections 17-20 of the
Act.
[60] Child Rights Act, 2007,
sections 105-107.
[61] Child Rights Act, Part
VII.
[62] By David F. M. Lamin, with
sponsorship from UNICEF.
[63] The Prevention of Cruelty
to Children Act (chapter 44 of the Laws of Sierra Leone, 1960) criminalizes
the ill-treatment, neglect
and abandonment of children.
[64] Draft Report of the Social
Protection Working Group on Pillar Six of Govt.’s PRSP III
(2013-2017), p. 10 (on affordable health).
[65] Situation Analysis of the
Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, p. 9.
[66] Draft Report of the Social
Protection Working Group on Pillar Six of Govt.’s PRSP III
(2013-2017), p. 10, quoting from the
Health Information Bulletin,
2011 – Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Freetown.
[67] UNICEF Situation Analysis
of the Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, p. 21.
[68] Draft Report of the Social
Protection Working Group on Pillar Six of Govt.’s PRSP III
(2013-2017), p. 10.
[69] Situation Analysis of the
Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, p. 11.
[70] Ibid, p. 21.
[71] Ibid, pp. 16-17.
[72] Draft Report for
PRSP III (2013-2017) – Energy and Water Resources Sector,
pp. 2-3.
[73] Ibid, p. 19 &
pp. 7-8.
[74] Ibid, p. 9 &
pp. 9-16.
[75] Ibid, p. 13.
[76] Draft Report for PRSP III
(2013-2017) – Health Sector, pp. 5-10.
[77] See the UNICEF-sponsored
report entitled: “A Glimpse into the World of Teenage Pregnancy in Sierra
Leone”, June, 2010
by Emilie Coinco (Consultant); and the research-based
study entitled: “An Ethnographic Study of Community-Based Child Protection
Mechanisms and their Linkage with the National Child Protection System of Sierra
Leone”, July, 2011 by The Columbia Group for
Children in Adversity.
[78] Situation Analysis of the
Status of Children in Sierra Leone, December 2011, p. 34.
[79] In 2012, UNICEF undertook a
research on the “Factors contributing to the abandonment of Female Genital
Cutting in Sierra Leone”
by Rebecca Horn (16 October, 2012), which
outlined strategies that will aid individuals and families alike to abandon the
practice
of FGM locally.
[80] HRC Report 2011 entitled
“The State of Human Rights in Sierra Leone, 2011”, p. 52.
[81] Government of Sierra Leone
document prepared by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s
Affairs.
[82] UNICEF Situation Analysis,
December 2011, p. 18.
[83] Ibid, p. 21.
[84] Draft Report for PRSP III
(2013-2017) – Education Sector, p. 2. (Discussion Draft).
[85] UNICEF 2011 Situation
Report, p. 25.
[86] Ibid, p. 23.
[87] Ibid, pp. 24-25.
[88] Ibid, p. 25.
[89] Ibid, p. 26.
[90] Draft Report for
PRSP III (2013-2017) – Education Sector, p. 2. (Discussion
Draft).
[91] Ibid, pp. 2-3.
[92] Sierra Express Media
Online, published on 7 March 2010, available from www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/6310.
[93] Awareness Times News, 30
July 2010, available from news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=6&num=15932.
[94] UNICEF 2011 Situation
Report, p. 55.
[95] Ibid, p. 54.
[96] UNICEF 2011 Situation
Report, p. 31.
[97] Ibid, p. 32.
[98] Section 170 (6) of the
Mines and Minerals Act, 2009.
[99] See Government of Sierra
Leone document entitled “Update on TACKLE Project Implementation in Sierra
Leone”, July 2012
by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services.
[100] For all of the foregoing
references, see the UNICEF 2011 Situation Report, p. 45, quoting from the
Statement of Fiscal Operations
(Consolidated Fund), 2011 produced by the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
[101] Such as the Family
Support Units of the Sierra Leone Police, and FAAST and UNICEF
organizations.
[102] By the Line Ministry and
the Justice Sector Development Program in July 2006.
[103] African Union Doc.
CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990); entered into force 29 November 1999.
[104] The United Nations
Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, 1985.
[105] The United Nations
Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, 1990.
[106] The United Nations Rules
for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, 1990.
[107] Drafted in 2010 and
disseminated by the Line Ministry and UNICEF among stakeholders for
validation.
[108] Report entitled
“Beyond the Law: Assessing the realities of juvenile justice in Sierra
Leone”, DCISL 2010, p. 17.
[109] Child Rights Act, 2007
at section 70.
[110] See sections 38, 39 and
40 of the Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
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