May 21, 2021
By Aruna Kamara in Bo
Adolescent Girls in Bo have urged government of Sierra Leone to promote the holistic realization of their human rights.
In a Press Release dated 18th May 2021, civil society organizations including Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society(WAVES- Sierra Leone) and Defence for Children International added their voice to the adolescent girls. They indicated that on March 30, 2020 the government of Sierra Leone announced that it had lifted the discriminatory ban it has put in place prohibiting pregnant schoolgirls from attending school.
This announcement signaled the start of new dawn for many adolescent in the country, especially those who had become pregnant while in school.
The release stated that: “What was even better is that the government did announce that it planned to promulgate two laws to address the underlying drivers of adolescent pregnancies and sexual violation of the children.
Specifically under the proposed national policy on Radical Inclusion in Education and Comprehensive Safety Policy. It has been more than one year now since this announcement was made and it is therefore a pivotal moment for us to reflect and see whether or not adolescent girls in Sierra Leone have unrestricted access to education and whether or not they and their counterpart are free from sexual and gender based violence as barriers to their education and their future. Unfortunately, the status of our audit of the right of the girls shows a report that is wanting. Besides the continued threat and live reality of sexual violence adolescent girls in Sierra Leone are also forced to endure the threat of child marriage, Female genital Mutilation and sexual exploitation. We are seeing an emerging trend of increased online sexual abuse and violence targeting many adolescent in the country.”
The press lease continued: “We have to say so far, institutions that are tasked with the responsibility to provide justice for survivors of sexual violence in the country are woefully under-resourced including the family support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police, which uses one hundred dollars for countrywide operations in each quarter of the year. In addition, the government is yet to put in place policy measures to reverse the negative social attitudes that support the discrimination and bias against pregnant girls, in addition to taking other concrete steps to realize this vision.
As champions of girls’ and women’s right, we feel that time has come for the government of Sierra Leone to prioritize realization of the rights of adolescent girls moving from rhetoric to action. We are therefore glad to let you know that on 12May 2021, Sierra Leone‘s human right record came up for review during the Universal Periodic Review. The Minister of Justice reported that the government has implemented 92% of the previous recommendations, though in our opinion ,more remains to be done as they have just made some progress in those areas. We , do however, applaud the countries that have made new recommendations that echoed the voice of girls, boys and adult CSOs.’’
The release noted that: ‘’As women’s right defenders and champions, we urge the government to taka the following steps to ensure that the rights of the girls are upheld. On sexual abuse and violence, we call on the government to: address underlying drivers of gender discrimination at national and community level; replicate the sexual violence model court at district level; recruit more state counsels and high court judges and deploying them across all districts to facilitate speedy prosecution; speedy establishment of a forensic lab; strengthen the capacity of the Family Support Unit(FSU) with more logistics, training of personnel and separate budget allocation; strengthen child safeguarding measures in schools; recruit more social workers and deploy them at chiefdom level to be facilitating prevention initiatives; ensure adequate protection of victims during investigations and put measures in place to investigate and prosecute online sexual violence including cyber bully particularly of adolescent girls.’’
The release spoke: on the access to education for pregnant girls by calling on the government to promote safe school environment that is free from Gender Base Violence; broaden school health programmes and comprehensive sexuality education in curricula; adapt school infrastructure to be suitable for all girls including teenage mothers and put case management and referral systems in place at schools for pregnant girls and other children with vulnerables.
During the state opening of the fourth session of the fifth parliament on Tuesday, President Julius Maada Bio said that:
‘’My Government will take more action to protect especially women and girls from sexual and gender based violence. The Child Rights Act (2007) will be updated and a National Street Children Strategy will be presented .More measures to concretize and operationalize the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment policy will be presented. Over the coming years, women’s empowerment programmes will be a priority.’’
As a consequence of our concerted action to fight SGBV, President Bio said that Sierra Leone is among 9 countries in the world to serve as Board Member for the Women, Peace and Security, and Humanitarian Action Compact. Sierra Leone has also clinched the Presidency of the UN Women Board, a UN Entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment.135.My Government has also consented to sponsor a UN resolution on a survivor’s bill of rights for sexual and gender based violence.’’