Aftermath of Mo Ibrahim Report- Sierra Leone seeks change

After the release of the sixth edition of the Mo Ibrahim's Index of Africa Governance (IIAG) report for 2012, the Human Right Commission of Sierra Leone (HRC-SL) has noted that it still looks forward to when Sierra Leone will reach its highest peak in the world's human rights index.

Though Sierra Leone was ranked 20th out of 52 African nations in the latest IIAG report, HRC-SL public relations officer, Henry Sheku, said the result is an indication that the country is making progress but is yet to reach the target peak. He said the commission is pleased with the report but they are trying all they could, as human rights activists, to ensure that Sierra Leone reaches their stipulated point as one of the world's top five human rights nations.

"Even though we have been advocating for international human rights laws to be domesticated by the Sierra Leone parliament, there are more challenges to face. They (parliament) however did their best in passing the Sexual Offences Bill. We look forward to the next parliament and government to pass into law other international treaties as governance is a continuous process," he said.

According to Sheku, the HRC-SL is faced with some difficulties particularly in reporting on human rights violations in rural areas, noting that the police should be capacitated with enough resources to carry out their functions as a real agent of any state. He noted that the police in the provinces, especially those at Blama and the Daru police station in the Kenema district, lack communication equipment and are faced with many difficulties in their bid to report on human rights violation to the HRC-SL.

"The Blama and the Daru police stations lack communication equipment and accused persons are overcrowded in the prison even though every accused person has a right to fair trial. The prison department should be capacitated with personnel resources too," Sheku said and urged the government and the entire executive of the Sierra Leone Police force to provide adequate resources for the police as the crime rate is increasing everyday especially in Bumbuna where they lack communication equipment to prevent crimes.

source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201210221091.html