By Aminata Phidelia Allie
A local nongovernmental organisation, Conscience International, has urged government to ratify laws dealing with the protection and reduction of stateless individuals in the country.
In a press statement issued last week to brief the media on the outcome of meetings held with Civil Society Organisations and National Human Rights Institutions in Senegal, the NGO which pioneers the fight against statelessness, notes that the issue is a silent concept known by few individuals within the circles of top civil servants and other agencies.
It goes on that the majority of the public have little or no knowledge about the issue “even victims and potential victims”, adding “statelessness has an impact on the lives of the individuals it affects”.
The release states that individuals who may not have a Sierra Leonean maiden name or do not speak one of the local languages stand at the risk of not having certain nationality rights like holding a birth certificate, passport, national identity card, or any other state facility.
“However, Sierra Leone is one of those state parties that have acceded to the convention, but has not signed to it”, it adds, and calls on the media and CSOs to “lobby government” for the ratification of the two conventions so as to ensure the reduction, protection and eradication of statelessness in the country.
Speaking to journalists at its office in Freetown, the national coordinator of Conscience International, assured that the meeting was the start of a very long journey, “for which we all must be on guard”. Paul Brima Bangura, who was at the meeting in Senegal, promised that a team comprising CSOs and journalists “to preach the gospel and create awareness and foster change” would be set up.
(C) Politico 22/05/14
