By Abu Bakarr Jalloh
Post-conflict Sierra Leone still has the opportunity to establish connections between reform and citizens’ ability to enjoy realistic and lasting justice.
The recommendations of the 2004 Report published by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that investigated the causes of the arm conflict suggest that the country has to deliver justice to citizens to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic war that lasted from 1991-2002, killing over 70,000 people and displacing about half of the population.
“We believe in justice and this is one of the outcomes of the TRC that people thought there was no justice in Sierra Leone, as a result they took up arms,” said Mrs. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Handciles, Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Aid Board (LAB).
In an exclusive interview at LAB’s headquarter in the capital city Freetown, Mrs. Carlton-Handciles told Politico that LAB had made considerable progress since its establishment in 2012 by the Sierra Leone Government in collaboration with the International Community.
“We have provided free legal service to over 300,000 citizens with low income. We are in 23 locations nationwide. We have about 18 lawyers nationwide. We have lawyers in all the regions. We have paralegals in police cells and correctional centers,” she said when asked about the achievements of her organization since she took office.
According to her, the number of civil cases settled out of court has been increasing sharply since LAB started providing Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and public education on legal matters, cutting down significantly the amount of resources allocated to legal service. “We invite both parties, look at their claims and advise them about the law,” she said.
Moreover, the Chief Executive of Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), Mr. Abdul M. Fatorma, said some of the recommendations his Civil Society Organization (CSO) made to the government have been implemented.
“We have pushed the Judiciary to employ more judges. Recently they hired and promoted eight judges. As of now there are five names submitted to the office of the President for another round of appointments,” Mr. Fatoma said.
However, reform and citizens’ ability to get justice is unconnected. For example, the problems of widespread injustice was highlighted by the large number of prisoners freed recently after investigations by LAB and other human rights organizations such as CHRDI found they were innocent.
“More people were behind bars for over seven to twelve years and some thirteen years. They had been denied access to justice. Our research was focusing on 145 inmates and in two months LAB has so far been able to free up to 600 inmates who had absolutely no business at the overcrowded Pademba Road prison. The courts didn’t even know they existed,” Mr. Fatoma said about the findings of their investigation.
In many cases perpetrators usually hold all the cards compared to victims. They have the resources and the most paid and incentivized prosecutors and defense counsels. Large majority of victims are poor, women, girls, host communities or ordinary Sierra Leoneans who lack the resources to afford legal service in a country that recorded only $1,670 as Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in 2019, an income that classes Sierra Leone among the poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank.
Injustice, corruption or exploitation is widely perpetuated in society, especially in workplaces and communities, with impunity. Some human rights experts say citizens’ fundamental rights, their rights to life and liberty, freedom of opinion and expression, and rights to work, education, access to information, and to participate in decisions affecting their lives are largely violated.
Silence at the workplace
It seems retaliation is inevitable for those who dare to speak up against exploitation, corruption and injustice. Mrs. Isatu Zainab Bangura, a widow and journalist who has worked for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBC) for over two decades, is a case study of the organizational culture of injustice in Sierra Leone.
“I was not even given a letter, I was just called and told to report to Freetown where I was demoted to an ordinary presenter,” Mrs. Bangura said as she broke down in tears.
She was in 2016 promoted as a deputy station manager at the SLBC’s office in the Eastern District of Kono. After decades of being denied so many opportunities such as trainings, workshops, promotion and travelling, she thought her silence and hard-work had finally paid off.
However, she later found out that the Kono office was where she would surfer the worst abuse since she started working for the National Broadcaster. She said her manager was deliberately keeping her from functioning or growing as a deputy manager. He would not even allow her to do stories on her own. Secondly, she was paid far below the amount mentioned in her promotion letter.
She became so frustrated about the abusive behavior of her supervisor that she had to come to Freetown to discuss the matter with the Directors of Media and Administration. The Director General who later became aware of her case asked her to write a letter to make her complaint. According to her, the Directors of Media and Administration who investigated her case later told her she should not have written the letter.
Therefore, her demotion from a deputy manager to an ordinary presenter was retaliation for writing the letter where she simply expressed her interests, concerns, fairs and needs. ”How can I work for an organization for so many years without being promoted, without a decent salary, without getting any benefit?” she questioned. “I’m getting older and I’m getting closer to retirement and I feel I have been kept in poverty for far too long,” she added.
The SLBC is not the only workplace where workers say they are being abused and silenced. Silence prevails in all public institutions including the Judiciary, Executive and Parliament. For example, in October this year, Parliament suspended four lawmakers, including Hon. Hindolo Moiwo Gavao who had told the BBC that corruption is widespread in Parliament.
Moreover, the Supreme Court said last month that lawyer Augustine Sorie-Semgbe Marrah was guilty of criminal contempt after he questioned on social media the motivations over the Court’s ruling that says “standing at the Bar starts from day of call to the Bar.”
Workers with all kind of allegations including wrongful sackings and demotions have been overcrowding human rights organizations such as CHRDI. Mr. Fatoma said they had been able to force some public institutions to respect the employment contracts they signed with their staffs.
“Right now we have up to 515 cases of allegation of wrongful sacking and unpaid benefits. For example, we were able to secure end of term benefits for 240 people from Statistics Sierra Leone, 115 from the National Civil Registration. We were able to return 98 wrongfully sacked staffs back to the Fire Force,” Mr. Fatoma said.
According to him, the main root cause of workplace abuse is lack of proper labor laws that protect workers. “The laws that we have are old and not favorable. Even the last labor law we have focuses more on Trade Unions and how they should be run and that more of industrial related issues. The workplace violence, the sexual harassment, sexual abuse, discrimination, wrongful sacking have not been addressed yet,” he added.
Land grab
The land issue in Sierra Leone, according to experts, has to be resolved to avoid another civil war. “Land is a big issue in our organization. People die leaving behind their lands. The beneficiaries fight. People who are to benefit are not benefiting. People buy land and they found out there are several title holders to that land,” Mrs. Carlton-Handciles said to highlight some of the common land ownership problems of Sierra Leone.
The land and properties of many Sierra Leoneans have been grabbed by perpetuators of injustice with impunity, especially the land and properties of the most vulnerable people in society such as Mrs. Isatu Zainab Bangura. Laws and institutions introduced to deliver justice after the civil war are largely unable to facilitate and protect property rights.
“My mother bought this land when I was in Secondary School. I’m the only child to that late woman. Somebody who was not my neighbor then came and seized large part of my land. I reported the matter to the police station. I have taken him to court. But I have not been able to get my land back from him,” Mrs. Bangura said as she explained another form of injustice she suffers in her community.
According to her, at the police station her witness refused to come forward because he said the land grabber was a powerful man and his statement to the police would mean nothing and a waste of time. At the courts, she’s been told several times by her lawyer that her case file got missing and could not be found. Therefore, her case has not been able to make it to court for over five years now.
“This man is still continuing to bully me. He always abuses me, calling me names and telling me that I’m so poor that I have nothing,” she said of the man who grabbed the land from her. It’s like women do not have the right to own land in Sierra Leone.
“There is one case we are dealing with right now. The matter is before Justice Alusine Sesay. This land owned by a widow is in Dwazak junction. She owns that property from her late husband. The allegation is that the current Lands Minister grabbed the land from her and gave it to a businessman. Even though the courts place injunction that says no business activities should take place in that land, they went ahead and build a filling station and organized an official opening ceremony where the Lands Minister himself attended to make a statement,” Mr. Fatoma said.
The impunity in Sierra Leone despite sharp increase in free legal service providers including LAB and CHRDI suggests that the country will have to rethink its policies on issues such as justice, accountability and corruption.
Finally, reform is a matter not only of improved public management but of justice. It is when citizens like Mrs. Bangura are able to defend their political and economic wellbeing or when people and groups have some degree of liberty and security or, at least, of political space to freely express their interests, concerns, fairs or needs. Therefore, the connection between reform and justice will have to be established.
Abu Bakarr Jalloh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sanusi Research & Consulting
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