By: Ilyasa Baa
Sierra Leone has been given a grade A accreditation by the Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions for her high-level compliance and spending of over seventy-three thousand United States ($73,000) to offset debts the Human Right Commission of Sierra Leone (HRC-SL) owed the regional network.
The Commission’s Chairperson, Patricia Dalema has attributed this gain to the high level of support the Commission has been receiving from this government. She said the Commission was heavily indebted but the swift intervention of the government settled that aspect which brought some amount of respect to the nation, unlike some countries that are still lagging, according to the report.
She said one indicator that the country has gone far in the area of human rights is the fact that the issue of human resources has been addressed as regional offices have been empowered noting that thirty-eight staff were recruited. She added that the mainstreaming of gender in the work of the Commission added respect to the Commission within the sub-region.
She lamented that in 2016, the country was poorly graded because certain benchmarks were not met especially in the areas of human resources and funding.
“We have just opened an office in Port Loko”, she highlighted, adding that at the Commission every tribe is represented and regional offices operating in full swing with no staffing issues like before.
Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions is a United Nations statutory body charged with the responsibility to conduct an assessment of human rights institutions. This assessment is conducted every four years looking at five thematic pillars ranging from independence, how the Commission collaborates with institutions and organizations at the sub-regional level, to pluralism.
The subcommittee on Accreditation followed through the standards set by the Paris Principle to assess the human rights institutions asking questions about how these institutions operate within the four years. Accrediting Sierra Leone with a Grade A status means significant gains have been made since 2016 and the country is in the spotlight as a compliant nation in terms of human rights.
