By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
In a National conference on the ongoing Constitutional review process, the Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL) together with other Civil Societies and government representatives urged the Government to expedite the process to make sure they bring it to a logical conclusion.
Addressing the press after the conference at the Buxton Memorial Hall in Freetown on the 24th of January 2024 with CSOs, the Executive Director of CARL, Ibrahim Tommy noted that the process has taken too long for their commitment to have the new constitution.
He emphasized that the review process is not just about what the government wants but about what the people want.
“So we had wanted a new constitution for the people way back in 2004 when the TRC Report was released because it is one of the recommendations,” he said.
He urged the government to create space for new ideas to make the proposed constitution better and stronger. He called on the government to develop and disclose a timeline for concluding the process, saying they will soon issue a communiqué that will reflect the outcome of the conference.
Tommy noted that they convened the press conference, especially in the hope that they would have an update on the status of the Constitutional review process. He said that they want the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to update Civil Society and by extension the people of Sierra Leone about the status of that process.
He said they presented their recommendations at the conference on the government white paper where they got comments on ideas for making the process better. He explained that it is important to remind members of the public and the government of Sierra Leone that the Constitution is about and for the people of the country and it should seek to put the interest of citizens at the heart of the process.
The Executive Director of CARL noted that there is always a chance to amend the constitution in the interest of the country and urged the government not to shoot the door on continued engagement with the process until the Constitutional amendment bill is passed in Parliament and adopted at a referendum.
He reiterated that they started the process of reviewing the 1991 Constitution way back in 2006 with the Peter Tucker Constitutional Review Committee before setting up the Kawan Constitutional Review Committee in 2013. He said, the Kawan committee looked at the Peter Tucker report as well as other documents and came up with a list of findings and recommendations before the Bio administration took the report and recommendations and came up with a white paper that the government has accepted and rejected in 2018.
The Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law seeks to promote a just society for all persons in Sierra Leone, through monitoring institutions of accountability, outreach, and advocacy for institutional transparency, capacity building, and empowerment of citizens.
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