The Youth Justice in Action campaign in Sierra Leone brought together young advocates from a range of organisations for a conference in Freetown on 21 February 2010.
The aim of the event was to bring together young people to start planning activities for the next phase of the campaign, as well as identifying the main injustices young people face when they come into contact with the law.
Since 2006, when the campaign was launched, campaigners in Sierra Leone have worked to improve the conditions of young people in conflict with the law by effecting positive changes in policy, law and practice.
Speaking at the conference, Siaka Charles, Chairman of YMCA Sierra Leone, urged people to reject violence. He said that in many cases, young people have been victims of violence, particularly during the country’s elections and that this has impacted on society as a whole.
Campaign Coordinator, OB Sandy added that many young people experience marginalisation, stigma and discrimination. Worse still, Sierra Leone is still struggling to establish a national strategy for the rehabilitation, reintegration and education of young offenders. He called on the government of Sierra Leone to ratify UN Resolution A/HRC/10/I.15 (which addresses the need for rehabilitating and reintegrating former young offenders into society. Read more here).
OB called on decision makers, including the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Justice Sector Development Programme in Sierra Leone to help in the rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders based on international minimum standards.
The representative of the National Union of Sierra Leone Students (NUSS), Morlai Conteh, said that based on their investigations on justice involving young people, they have witnessed that in most cases, young people in Sierra Leone are being denied their rights in courts, that most of the allegations on which young people are charged are loitering and drug abuse: “Youths are arbitrarily arrested and detained beyond the constitutionally stipulated 72 hours and when they are found innocent they are not compensated”, he said.
Other civil society and youth groups made contributions to the conference and showed their support for the campaign’s objectives. They also pledged that they would continue to monitor injustices meted out in juvenile courts across Sierra Leone.
In the next few months, young people from Sierra Leone will be carrying out a piece of research to investigate how well their country is meeting the recommendations of the UN resolution. Watch this space to see what they find out.
By OB Sandy
Funded by the European Commission
