The Last few weeks have seen a spike in media reports on gender and sexual based violence cases in the court. It followed the establishment of the model sexual offenses court. There have been some convictions too, some of them coming after very short trial period. This is seen by many as a major progress in the fight against this menace in Sierra Leone.
But as Allison French, Communication and Advocacy Coordinator for the Rainbow Initiative says in this interview with Kemo Cham, the road is still long, despite the “tremendous achievement” that began with the declaration of a state of emergency on rape by President Julius Maada Bio last year.
Politico: Please tell us briefly what the Rainbow Initiative is all about.
Allison French: The Rainbow Initiative is a local NGO that works for women and girls and even boys. We provide medical and psychosocial counseling and these services are free for survivors of sexual and gender based violence. So it’s not just about women and girls, we also have boys that are being abused, who do come to our centers.
And as part of our strategy we advocate for these women, girls and boys at policy making levels, so that laws seeking to protect this category of people are enacted.
We also do our advocacy by conducting outreach activities. Before the Coronavirus pandemic we went to schools and the communities. Currently we are only going to the communities. We have gender support groups that have been established in the communities that we work in so that they are able to support. Under an EU funded project we are running, we have focal points within the communities, so that of a situation arises, these focal points should be able to refer them directly to the Rainbow centers.
And as part of our work we also collaborate with the FSU [(Family Support Unit) of the Sierra Leone Police], the Aberdeen Women Center… So the referral pathway can either come from the community or the FSU, wherein we do reverse referral. Whether the client goes first to the FUS or comes first to the Rainbow Center, we refer them back to the FSU, because they have the power to charge the matter to court or prosecute it.
In cases where the survivor has undergone substantial injury that we cannot handle, we do refer them to other stakeholders. Since all our services are free, whatever services a survivor needs, we pay for it if the service provider we approach is in position to provide them.
About a year ago we were at a very critical point in the fight against SGBV and the Rainbow Initiative was calling for reforms. Where are we now on that?
Form the point of declaration of State of Emergency by His Excellency the president, we have seen quite a number of changes. People are more comfortable to report cases that are happening, because they now see that there is the political will and the strength to ensure that these cases are not compromised. We saw the amendment of the Sexual Offences Act of 2012 in 2019, from which we have got harsher punishment for perpetrators found guilty. And just a couple of weeks ago we saw that the new model court was launched. That is a very big plus to the country because now the backlog of cases would be tried at a quicker rate, because the court is to be sitting six times a week. That means quite a lot of cases are going to appear in the courts. And as long as the witnesses and the evidences prove that these people are found wanting, I believe justice would be served.
You mentioned the court, which is a major development in the fight so far. And you are saying that the fact that we are seeing so many cases in the media shows that people are happy now to report. Is that where we wanted to be? Is that all?
It’s not where we want to be. Our main goal is to see a Sierra Leone that is free from sexual and gender based violence. That is our end goal. But so far we can only push cases that are being reported. It’s with reporting that you get justice. If you don’t report, you cannot get justice by sitting on an important issue like that. By us encouraging people to report, the hope is that it will be a deterrent for people who are engaging in these kinds of acts, especially with little children. We found out that 90 percent of the cases involve children under the age of 18.
For instance in 2019, out of the 3, 701 cases of SGBV that we registered within the five rainbow centers, 3, 636 cases were children under 18. So we found out that these are only the reported cases because there are cases that are happing that are not being reported.
The fact that over 90 percent of the cases are children is a major concern. Have you been able to link this to any factor?
It could be a number of reasons. Most of the incidents that happen are within communities, within families. So it’s a mystery why a father will decide to sleep with his own daughter. These are things that are beyond our imagination.
Even though we are having more cases in court, the trials are going so rapidly that it raised concerns about justice for the accused too. We want justice, but we also surely don’t want the wrong person o be convicted. What do you think about this?
With Rainbow, we only do physical examination, because Sierra Leone as a whole does not have forensic testing capabilities. We also rely on testimonies and witness statements from people around the communities. In most of these cases we find that people would have seen some sort of movement between the child and the perpetrator, like seeing the child coming from perpetrator’s room or something of the sort. If a situation arises and the child is found to have been tampered with, obviously if the child points at a particular person, people can probably pick up that oh! We have been noticing something. So that is how we tend to get our convictions so far.
Going back to your first question about where we are or where we need to be, forensic testing is a top priority for Sierra Leone because it will not only help with SGBV cases, but it will help with all other cases when it comes to murder, and other forms of assault cases that are happening within the country and we cannot get enough evidence as to who did it, when that person did it and why they did it.
For now we only do physical examination and with physical examination you only get to see whether the hymen has been broken or not, or maybe if the incident has just happened you could get to see the spam.
And as part of what we do we ensure that as long as the cases are brought to us within the first 72 hours of them happening, we give them anti-pregnancy medications. We give them test for HIV/AIDS, because we have had some cases that have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. And we have quite a number of STIs [Sexually Transmitted Infections] of difference kinds, whether it’s chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and the sort. As part of the medical treatment we give them, these are the kind of medications we provide to clear their systems.
There has been a fund raising drive recently. How has that help you?
The Survivors Solidarity Fund couldn’t have come at a better time. We are so grateful, we are so thankful to Sierra Leoneans in particular, because this not money from international donors, this is money from local Sierra Leoneans who are striving to make ends meet themselves, and they have chosen to support. So that money has come very handy. Like I said, we only have five centers across the country. It would support our activities, the daily running of these centers. Yes we do not pay rents, because our centers are found in government hospitals of the district they are, but some of the services we provide for the survivors, like I mentioned earlier, are not free. So this money has come in at a very crucial time for us and it will go a very long way as now we are going to better provide for our survivors.
There is also this concern: alleged police corruption in the course of investigation of SGBV cases. Between the Rainbow Center and the Police, results take long to appear in court. Sometimes it get lost, according to the victims.
If I can talk you through the pathway, within that period of the survivor and the family going through the Rainbow Center. Once the test has been done, the medical report is not given to the family.
Is there a reason for that?
Yes. Because we found out that previously when the report was given to the family, they use that to compromise and settle out of courts. We have had cases where they [survivors and their family] have used it to blackmail accused for money. And that’s not good because it’s a state crime.
So the report goes back directly to the FSU, who then has the mandate to charge the matter by first sending it to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecution]’s office for advice.
That’s a very genuine reason. But then I wonder if you have heard of the concerns of some families as to how FSU officers are also using the results to extort families?
Well, I cannot make a comment on behalf of the police.
No. I meant if you haven’t heard of such complaints from the people.
No. We haven’t heard from people about that, because the service is supposed to be free. I cannot say if anyone has come to us and say we were asked for money.
The fact that there is delay in the investigation in many cases is no secret. Even the First Lady has complained about that.
Yes, yes. Definitely.
And Most of the time it’s at the FSU level that this delay occur.
They would be the best people to comment.
But is it not a concern for you? You are a major player in this fight?
Yes, it is a concern. But like I said that’s why we ensure that all our services we render are free. So even when we refer our survivors to lawyers, they don’t have to go pay the lawyers anything, because we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the lawyers to ensure that whatever survivor we refer to them, they don’t ask for money from them. So we are ensuring that how we provide our services remain transparent and clear.
Finally, I know you have mentioned the forensic lab, which everyone has been talking about. But what other issues do we have to look into, from the Rainbow Initiative’s perspective, to attain our ultimate goal?
The forensic testing. It’s not just about setting the lab, it’s also about having the right personnel. Not just the building, its’ the human resource to go with the building and the resources. And it’s not a one day journey. It’s something that people will have to specialize in as a profession. Those are some of the things that encapsulate the whole forensic testing capacities that we are talking about.
We also need more rainbow centers.
Yes, the government has done a very tremendous job in establishing the One Stop Centers, but as Rainbow, we need more centers, because there are cases that comes from all the way from Mile 91, Masiaka, for example, to come to the Freetown center. There are cases that come from Kailahun to the Kenema Center. Those people are not indigenes in those communities and it’s a whole traumatic experience on top of what they are already going through, not having somewhere to sleep, all because they want to seek justice for their family members.
If we have centers in all the districts, then we are going to see a tremendous increase in the number of cases because some people do not report because they are thinking about the transportation from Point A to Point B and back. That is why the Rainbow Initiative does transport reimbursement for survivors and their families, because we have a mandatory two weeks follow-up after the initial examination. And some survivors will say I don’t have money to come back and we say that’s ok, come we will refund your transport. That’s another service that the RI does for the survivors.
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