By Umaru Fofana
The ECOWAS Court of Justice yesterday met to hear a case filed on behalf of pregnant girls in Sierra Leone who were shut out of school following the Ebola outbreak in 2015 and more recently.
The Government of Sierra Leone raised an objection that one of the parties – Child Welfare Society (CWS) lacked the “legal capacity” to be in the matter which the court upheld and struck them out.
But the court decided that the other party, Women Against Violence (WAVES) could stay on before adjourning to 25 June for hearing.
Osman Kanu representing the state of Sierra Leone said they would file their defence against the adjourned date.
In May 2018, Equality Now, Child Welfare Society, WAVES and IHRDA challenged Sierra Leone's ban prohibiting pregnant girls from attending school. They want to secure a ruling that will lead to the scrapping of the barring of pregnant girls from attending school.
They say their decision to go to the regional court was informed by the desire “to protect girls from being doubly violated owing to the fact that many of [them] are victims of sexual violence, having been brutally raped within their own communities or violated as minors since they do not have the capacity to consent to sexual conduct”.
They say the girls who are denied access to school eventually get “relegated to ignorance and public shame while at the same time being denied the opportunities that basic education offers”.
Speaking before the start of the case, Programme Officer of Equality Now, Naitore Nyamu said "many girls have been sexually violated by their teachers or someone close to them” which forces them to drop out of school. She said the “denial of the right to education leaves girls vulnerable to numerous forms of violence” and therefore called on the Sierra Leone government to “identify effective approaches to protecting girls from all forms of sexual and gender-based violence because it has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil all human rights of adolescent girls”.
Pregnant girls face stigmatisation in Sierra Leone and are not allowed to attend classes when their pregnancy is visible. Some see them as “unserious and a negative influence on other girls”, while others regard them as victims of the recklessness of some men.
There have been shocking statistics of sexual assault especially paedophilia in Sierra Leone lately, with some of the victims just a few months old. This prompted President Julius Maada Bio to early this year, declare rape especially of minors, a public emergency.
© 2019 Politico Online
