Justice and Human Rights Sierra Leone Project #52036

15 Year Anniversary

by AdvocAid

Project Report | Jul 21, 2022
15 Years of Fighting for Justice for Women & Girls in Sierra Leone

By Sabrina Mahtani | Board Member

Founded in 2006, 2021 was a big year for AdvocAid as we celebrated our 15-year anniversary. We are so grateful to everyone who has supported our work for women's and girls’ rights over the last 15 years. Here are a few of the amazing things we have achieved together!

Provided legal support to more than 15,000 women and girls.
Successfully challenged the 21-day time limit within which to file an appeal for a person sentenced to death.
Secured the release of six women and three men from death row.
Successfully campaigned for the death penalty to be abolished.
Secured the establishment of two separate detention facilities for women, including Sierra Leone’s first correctional centre for women in Freetown.
Established the first prison library in Freetown’s Pademba Road Prison.
Strengthened police accountability with our police complaints manual and used the process to ensure disciplinary action was taken against police officers who threatened our paralegal when she intervened to stop women being charged bribes to obtain bail.
Freed 22 people who were wrongly sentenced for loitering.
Launched a documentary film “Kolonko” highlighting abuses sex workers face by the police.
Successfully advocated for a new Legal Aid Act and a new Correctional Services Act.
Reached over a million women through our legal education outreach work, including our award-winning edutainment TV and radio series, Police Case.
Grown to a team of 27 full time staff, with nearly 70% women.
Supported the creation of the Go Bifo (Moving Forward) support group for formerly detained women, providing them with an opportunity to come together as a self- managing peer support network.
Continued to operate without pause throughout the Ebola epidemic and the COVID- 19 pandemic, ensuring rights were maintained during states of emergency.
Won the Namati Justice Prize and Clifford Chance Access to Justice Award.

You can read more in our 2021 Annual Report (attached at the end of this report).

We would not have been able to do any of this important work without our supporters - thank you so much for helping us to fight for justice for women and girls in Sierra Leone.

Thank you for supporting this 15 Year Anniversary GlobalGiving page. We will now be closing this page, but please do continue to follow our work on social media and please consider donating to our other projects on GlobalGiving. Monthly donations are especially helpful as they help us to plan and budget.

Links:

Attachments:

AdvocAid 2021 Annual Report (PDF)

2 Attachments

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Mar 8, 2022
Namsa's Story: Widow Detained with 7 Month Old Bab

By Zynab Binta Kamara | Executive Director

Namsa* is a 28 year old woman and mother of 4 children, including a 7 months old baby . Namsa’s husband, who was sole breadwinner, died a year ago leaving her a widow and economically challenged as she has been unable to find employment.

In early August 2021, she met a man and made an arrangement to sell him some cement. This man ended up giving her Le 6 million for the cement but she failed to supply him any cement as had been agreed.

The man then proceeded to make a statement against her at the Waterloo police station, and she was later arrested and detained. Our social worker met her during her regular police station monitoring. Namsa disclosed to the social worker that she had been detained for about 3 weeks and it could become longer as she does not have legal representation. She also said that she is a widow, was detained with her baby and has other children whom she cannot support as she is locked up.

Our social worker informed our AdvocAid paralegal who gave her legal advice about her rights . AdvocAid’s Duty Counsel lawyer provided her with legal representation. During this time, our social worker was providing her with social welfare support especially baby items like baby food and baby clothes.

After a while, the police investigation was concluded and Namsa was charged to court for the offence of obtaining money under false pretenses. As the offence was bailable, the Duty Counsel applied for bail during the court proceedings which was granted. However, it was challenging for Namsa to find someone who would agree to stand as a surety for her so she could be released on bail. With this obstacle, she remained detained at the Waterloo Correctional Center for about four months with her baby. In January 2022, she was found guilty of the offence at the Magistrates Court in Waterloo. AdvocAid's Duty Counsel, made a passionate plea in mitigation on behalf of Namsa and craved the indulgence of the Magistrate to “tamper justice with mercy” by imposing a fine rather than giving her a custodial sentence. The Duty Counsel argued that if our client spent a year in prison, it would have an adverse effect on her family as there would be no one to take care of her children. During the time she spent detained, her children had turned to beggars, sometimes surviving through the help of some neighbors.

Taking into consideration the Duty Counsel’s argument, the Magistrate fined Namsa the sum of Le 500,000 and was also considerate not to order her to pay compensation to the complainant as she is a widow, a mother of five and did not have the means to pay the fine at the moment. AdvocAid proceeded to pay the fine to secure Namsa’s release and enabled her to reunite with her children.

Our social worker continues to maintain contact with Namsa and her relatives, encouraging them to provide her with the social support system that she needs.

For fifteen years, AdvocAid has been able to provide critical legal support to many women and girls, such as Namsa, who would otherwise be overlooked. We can only do this through supporters like yourselves. A big tenki (thank you!) from us.

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Nov 8, 2021
AdvocAid GlobalGiving report

By Info AdvocAid | Project Leader

GlobalGiving Report

Project: 15 Year Anniversary

Topic: Death Penalty Abolished

Due: Sept 1st.

On 23 July, Sierra Leone abolished the death penalty, a historic milestone for us as #AdvocAidTurns15. Since its founding 15 years ago, AdvocAid has campaigned to end this cruel practice and provided free legal representation for women and men on death row to challenge their convictions and death sentences. In that time, AdvocAid has secured the release of six women and three men on death row through appeals or presidential pardon applications.

Although there have been no executions since 1998, there has been a resurgence in death sentences being delivered by Courts causing mental anguish to people on death row and their families. The death penalty was mandatory in Sierra Leone meaning a judge could not take into account any mitigating circumstances, such as gender-based violence.

Advocaid’s Executive Director, Rhiannon Davis commented on the decision by Parliament: “AdvocAid welcomes the decision to abolish the death penalty. For 15 years, AdvocAid has tirelessly fought to end this cruel practice, through litigation, advocacy, and supporting women with lived experience of death row to share their stories. Replacing the death penalty with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment is landmark step. This approach gives the judiciary scope to consider in their sentencing the factors that lead women to come into contact with the law, which often include histories of poverty and gender-based violence. "

There were 99 people on death row, as at June 2021. AdvocAid and other human rights organisations had advocated that legislation to replace the death penalty should also provide for a judicial re-sentencing process for prisoners who have been sentenced to death. This would reduce the need for commutations or other special procedures. We welcome that the Government has committed to reviewing this.

We once again congratulate the Government of Sierra Leone, the activists and civil society partners, donors and international partners who all worked towards this acheivement. We also thank all the men and women on death row who we worked with over the years and who courageously shared their stories in order to make the case for the abolition of the death penalty.

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