Human rights in Sierra Leone are generally considered poor, although they have gradually improved after the end of its civil war in 2002. Among the major human rights problems in Sierra Leone today, according to a 2011 U.S. State Department report, are "security force abuse and use of excessive force with detainees, including juveniles; harsh conditions in prisons and jails; official impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged detention, excessive bail, and insufficient legal representation; interference with freedom of speech and press; forcible dispersion of demonstrators; widespread official corruption; societal discrimination and violence against women, discrimination based on sexual orientation; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse; trafficking in persons, including children; and forced child labor".
Sierra Leone has acceded to or ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
In September 2011, Sierra Leone's First UPR Report was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. Of the 129 recommendations made by the review committee on 5 May 2011, the government of Sierra Leone noted that it had already implemented 57.
In November 2012, Sierra Leone was elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Historical background
A 2001 overview noted that there had been "serious and grotesque human rights violations" in Sierra Leone since its civil war began in 1991.The rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), had "committed horrendous abuses", including rape and the amputation of limbs. The report noted that "25 times as many people" had already been killed in Sierra Leone than had been killed in Kosovo at the point when the international community decided to take action. "In fact, it has been pointed out by many that the atrocities in Sierra Leone have been worse than was seen in Kosovo."
Crimes committed during the war "included severing limbs, forcibly recruiting children into armed groups, widespread rape and coercion of women and girls as 'bush wives' of combatants, burning houses, and killing and maiming of civilians. More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more were displaced across the country."
About one quarter of the soldiers serving in the government armed forces during the civil war were under age 18. "Recruitment methods were brutal – sometimes children were abducted, sometimes they were forced to kill members of their own families so as to make them outcasts, sometimes they were drugged, sometimes they were forced into conscription by threatening family members." Child soldiers were deliberately overwhelmed with violence "in order to completely desensitize them and make them mindless killing machines".
Sierra Leone's civil war ended in January 2002 after the U.N. established a large peacekeeping force that helped restore peace and stability. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established, and in 2004 it issued its final report, which included a long list of recommendations intended to remedy "some of the endemic problems that the TRC identified as causes of the war including issues relating to protecting human rights, fighting corruption, the need for wholesale reform of the justice and security sectors, and improving the democratic participation of youth and women".
In 2004 UN peacekeepers handed security over to Sierra Leone's armed forces and police and were replaced by a UN peacebuilding mission, UNIOSIL, which in 2008 was in turn replaced by the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), which is tasked with monitoring and upholding human rights and the rule of law.
According to Amnesty International, "stability and security have increased in Sierra Leone since 2002". The government has made efforts to improve human rights on a variety of fronts, establishing "systems of accountability for human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during the conflict, and promoting rule of law and democratic governance", according to a 2010 report by the International Center for Transitional Justice. Still, the country falls seriously short by most human-rights measures, and the ICTJ notes that despite "progress on its obligations to provide justice to victims of serious human rights violations", Sierra Leone "needs to work harder" at implementing the TRC's recommendations.
The following chart shows Sierra Leone's ratings since 1972 in the Freedom in the World reports, published annually by Freedom House. A rating of 1 is "free"; 7, "not free". Historical ratings YearPolitical RightsCivil LibertiesStatusPresident 197245Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197365Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197465Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197565Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197665Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197755Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197855Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 197955Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198055Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198155Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198255Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198355Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198445Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198555Partly FreeSiaka Stevens 198655Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 198755Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 198855Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 198965Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 199065Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 199165Partly FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 199276Not FreeJoseph Saidu Momoh 199376Not FreeValentine Strasser 199476Not FreeValentine Strasser 199576Partly FreeValentine Strasser 199645Partly FreeValentine Strasser 199776Not FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 199835Partly FreeJohnny Paul Koroma 199935Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200045Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200145Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200244Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200343Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200443Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200543Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200643Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200733Partly FreeAhmad Tejan Kabbah 200833Partly FreeErnest Bai Koroma 200933Partly FreeErnest Bai Koroma 201033Partly FreeErnest Bai Koroma 201133Partly FreeErnest Bai Koroma
Basic rights
Although the law bans discrimination based on race, tribe, sex, and several other attributes, prejudice is widespread and customary laws enshrine various forms of discrimination. Also, citizenship is essentially denied to persons who are not of "Negro-African descent".
Although freedom of speech and of the press are officially guaranteed, they are often restricted and journalists engage in self-censorship. As a rule, journalists lack skills, resources, and professional ethics. Libel cases are rare. Radio is the major source of news, and in 2009 radio stations owned by political parties were closed by the government after riots. There are no restrictions on Internet access, academic freedom, cultural events, or freedom of assembly, although police have sometimes broken up demonstrations. On April 16–18, 2012, for example, police responded with disproportionate force to a protest in the town of Bumbuna by employees of African Minerals, killing one and severely wounding several more.
The right to move freely around the country, travel abroad, move abroad, and move back to the country is guaranteed, although police demand bribes at roadblocks. While the Liberian border is officially open, border officials often extort bribes from travelers. From time to time, moreover, Guinean troops stationed on the border with that country harass Sierra Leonean locals.
In urban areas, vigilante violence against debtors, suspected thieves, and others is common.
A December 2012 report by Amnesty International described Sierra Leone as one of three countries in the world that are "safe havens for war crimes suspects", noting that while some crimes under international law are also defined as crimes in Sierra Leone, the country "has not defined these crimes in accordance with the strictest requirements of international law". Also, "most crimes under international law...remain outside the scope of Sierra Leonean courts".
Women's rights
There is widespread discrimination in Sierra Leone against women, who are routinely denied equal access to education, medical care, employment, and credit. In 2007, 43 percent of women in Sierra Leone were married to polygamous men.
Women are at a significant disadvantage under the tribal laws that are in force everywhere except in the capital. These laws forbid, for example, the ownership of land by women. Tribal chiefs sometimes detain women and children or evict them from their homes in collusion with the women's husbands. Women's status in some ethnic groups is notably worse than in others, although they are effectively second-class citizens in all of the tribes. Tribal secret societies in rural areas hold forcible initiation rites that, in the case of women, involve genital mutilation. The number of such initiations, however, appears to be decreasing.
Rape is common and viewed more as a societal norm than a criminal problem. A new Sexual Offenses Act, setting the age of consent at 18 and criminalizing marital rape took effect in 2012. Rape is underreported and rape victims are often urged to marry their rapists. Domestic violence is an offense under the 2007 Domestic Violence Act, but is rarely prosecuted. The new Sexual Offenses Act criminalizes sexual harassment.United States Department of State
Wife-beating is taken for granted as a normal part of life, and most women consider it a justified punishment for such offenses as burning food or leaving the house without permission. Female genital cutting in Sierra Leone (FGM) which is carried out mainly by women's secret societies, is on the decline owing to a growing sense that it is morally offensive, but remains a major problem. According to a 2013 UNICEF report,UNICEF 2013 , p. 27. 88% of women in Sierra Leone have undergone female genital mutilation. However, there is growing opposition to the practice.
"The maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone is one of the highest in the world," Amnesty International notes. In 2009 a report by the organization described the country's high maternal and infant mortality rates as a "human rights emergency", noting that one in eight women in the country risk dying during pregnancy or childbirth. The report gained wide attention, with an article in The Guardian noting that most women in the country "are too poor to pay for lifesaving treatment...Thousands bleed to death after giving birth. Most die in their homes. Some die on the way to hospital – in taxis, on motorbikes or on foot. Less than half of deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant and fewer than one in five are carried out in health facilities."
In September 2011, Amnesty International noted that despite the launch in Sierra Leone, a year earlier, of the Free Health Care Initiative, under which pregnant women and lactating mothers were supposed to receive free medical treatment, such women were still "being asked to pay for drugs, which they cannot afford". An Amnesty International official called Sierra Leone's health-care system "dysfunctional in many respects", with poor women and girls enjoying only "limited access to essential care in pregnancy and childbirth". Nor is there an effective complaint process.