Civil society organisations in the southern Moyamba district have called on Government through the Chief Justice Umu Hawa Tejan-Jalloh to assign a resident high court judge to the district. It followed a huge caseload of the rape of girls some of them as young as three years old with no judge to try the alleged rapists.
The organisations made the call at a bimonthly stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Centre for the Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA) with support from Access for Security and Justice.
They say the last time a high court sat in the district was in February which they say is creating “serious problems” in the district leading to the violation of the rights of citizens who are being abused by various people with their case pending in the court.
A women’s Network Leader, Sarrah Jalloh said: “We consider this situation unjust because justice delayed is justice denied especially when you consider the amount of cases committed to and awaiting trial in the high court, which are mainly crimes against women and girls relating to gender and sexual-based violence”.
Abigail Yavana of CCYA said this even called into question Government’s commitment to the implementation in Moyamba of such laws as the Sexual Offence Act of 2012, the Child Right Act and the 3 Gender laws. She said the district was now known for “its high crime rate against women and girls”.
During the meeting updates from the police family support unit, the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs and the judiciary showed that recently the District Magistrate Court committed over 25 cases to the high court for trial and the accused were on remand awaiting trial. Most of the cases committed were the rape of girls aged between three and 15 years. According to CCYA, most of them have very serious health complications requiring urgent medical attention with some having been referred to the Bo hospital.
In one instance a 3-year-old girl (name withheld) was allegedly raped by her mother’s boyfriend in Fakunya chiefdom after her mother had gone to the market. The brother who had allegedly seen the scene was threatened by the alleged rapist if he reported the incident, which he later did report to his teacher who is a CCYA beneficiary. She immediately reported to the FSU in Moyamba and the accused was arrested and arraigned before the Moyamba magistrate court.
Medical sources say the child suffered grave complications and was immediately referred to the Bo hospital where she is now responding to treatment. The accused is on remand awaiting the availability of a high court judge.
During the several training sessions and community outreach programmes conducted by CCYA and its partners, women’s groups, the police and the ministry of social welfare pleaded to monitor all such referral cases in the magistrate court to their conclusion.
“We should not encourage impunity to continue in Moyamba District since it was one of the pilot districts of the Justice Sector Development Programme” said Ngollo Katta head of CCYA. He said a lot of support was being provided to enhance justice in the district including in the areas of providing convenient residence and court space renovated and built by the JSDP. Ngollo said a high court judge should be able to visit that area from Bo district at least once quarterly to deal with the caseload.
CCYA with support from ASJP has hired a consultant to undertake a study in Moyamba district on the state of justice for women and girls. The six-month-long project dubbed “Empowerment of Women and Girls to Access the Rights conferred in the Sexual Offences Act 2012” is being implemented in seven chiefdoms (Fakunya, Kagboro, Bumpe, Ribbi, Kori, Kamajei and Dasse) in Moyamba district.
© Politico 06/11/13
