By Politico Staff Writer
The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, HRCSL has called on “government, Political Parties, Development Partners, Civil Society Organisations and the general public to work together to prevent a recurrence of war and any other forms of violence that would destabilize the nation”.
The commission described the eleven year war as “the darkest moment in the history of the country as it experienced a battered socio-economic system, wanton destruction of lives and property which worsened the already existing poverty level of the country”.
In a statement issued to mark thirty years to the day (March 23, 1991) when Corporal Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front fighters crossed into Sierra Leone from Liberia to launch the civil war, the HRCSL says “some of the causes of the civil war still exist including greed, corruption and nepotism, a challenged judicial system, unemployment, some weak national institutions and the lack of access to key social services by majority of citizens”.
It says during the period of that war “gross human rights violations were recorded including the right to life, the right to health, and the right to education… All these were in violation of our national, regional and international human rights laws. This caused a large portion of the population to be internally displaced whilst others fled to neighboring countries of Liberia and Guinea and other parts of the world.”
The HRCSL noted the progress made so far in implementing the recommendations of the TRC but urged the government to move quickly to the implementation of “key recommendations” of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with particular reference to the Constitutional Review.
President Julius Maada has pledged to vigorously pursue the review of the 1991 constitution, something many Sierra Leone say was not properly handled by the government of Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma in the white paper that followed the recommendations of the review committee headed by late Justice Edmond Cowan.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (24/03/21)
