CUL - Main Content

"AdvocAid works with girls and women caught up in Sierra Leone’s often unjust legal system...works in ten towns across Sierra Leone to ensure these women and their children receive fair legal representation, are educated on their legal rights and offered rehabilitation support upon release."

This site only contains a brief summary of activities in the late 1990s up to 2004 and photo galleries. "The Advocates provides investigative fact finding, direct legal representation, collaboration for education and training, and a broad distribution of publications."

"[Established in 2000 by the government]...to investigate instances of alleged or suspected corruption whether referred to it or not and to take such steps as may be necessary for the eradication or suppression of corrupt practices..." The site includes recent press releases and reports.

Read the story, via The New Internationalist (London); originally appeared in Chimurenga, vol. 12/13.

"CARL has its origin in the Special Court Monitoring Group (SCMG), which was established in May 2004 as a partnership project of the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Coalition for Justice and Accountability (COJA) to exclusively monitor and produce objective reporting on proceedings before the Court for both local and international community."

"The CHRI is a non-partisan independent international non-governmental organisation. Human rights education and advocacy are at the core of all CHRI's activities, and the aims and ends of its reports and investigations."

--Easier said than done: pursuing promises of the United Nations Human Rights Council--Sierra Leone (2016) 62 pages in PDF format
-- In pursuit of justice: a report on the judiciary in Sierra Leone (2002) CHRI newsletter; vol. 9, no. 2 (Summer 2002). 51 p. PDF format.

See also: Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Decree, 1997 ; Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Act of 2001 (2002). Supplement to the Sierra Leone Gazette, February 2002. In PDF format....and other Laws of Sierra Leone.

"[Since 2005]...an independent monitoring programme comprising human rights and civil society activists committed to promoting judicial accountability in Sierra Leone. We do so by monitoring the Special Court for Sierra Leone and our national institutions, starting with the National courts in Freetown. We hope soon to expand further to monitor the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC)."

The web site features background information on the documentary film about the civil war in Sierra Leone, including footage of graphic violence, produced in 1999 in association with Insight News Television, UK. There is also a section on the 'history of Sierra Leone', information about the principal filmmaker, Sorious Samura, and a "Buy the video" section.

"In 1936-37, Henry Usher Hall, Curator of General Ethnology, led the first Museum-sponsored expedition to sub-Saharan Africa. He spent seven months conducting ethnographic research among the Sherbro peoples of Sierra Leone." The web site features highlights from the photographs and other materials collected by Hall, accompanying texts, and links to related information.

General information about the organization, its activities, and a newsletter from Sierra Leone. "Friends of Sierra Leone [founded in 1991 by former Peace Corps Volunteers and Sierra Leoneans] is a U.S.-based voluntary, not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving Sierra Leone. The Friends of Sierra Leone (FoSL) is non-political and supports all of Sierra Leone, regardless of ethnicity or region."

"[Established in 2004] The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL)...became truly operational in 2007, although Commissioners took office in December, 2006."
--See especially: Human rights reports, 2018-
--Plus: Special Elections Report 2018 : A Human Rights Perspective. 54 pages in PDF format

For each country monitored, the document include an overall summary, population figures, social indicators, and some analyses. See also, the IDMC Homepage.

"LAWCLA was established in March 2001 ... an independent, non-political, non-profit making, public interest Human Rights Law centre which among other things, provides free legal assistance to indigent members of the public, undertakes research in Human Rights issues and facilitate the training of law enforcement and other public officials in human rights."

"...to advocate for and promote at all decision-making levels the involvement of women and youth in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict in the Mano River sub-region, throughout Africa and the world..."

"...a Sierra Leonean civil society organization that engages in advocacy and strengthens/enhances the capacity of civil society organizations to effectively engage women, men, children, communities, government and other actors for the transformation of society."

"The Open Government Partnership formally launched on September 20, 2011, when the 8 founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) endorsed the Open Government Declaration, and announced their country action plans...Sierra Leone’s second action plan covers a diverse range of issues including gender violence, waste management, climate change and elections. The next action plan could be made more relevant to civic participation and public accountability through inclusion of commitments on public service delivery and anti-corruption measures."

"[Founded in 1996] We are a small team, inspired by our Human Rights convictions, who work together for the protection of the Rights of people in detention...Since our inception, we have monitored and reported on prisons and detention conditions and provided training for detention officers and Civil Society members on Human Rights."
--See especially: Prison reports

A collaborative project of The Sierra Leone National Museum, University College London, and University of Sussex, UK, containing a searchable database of digital images and videos. "...the main output of a research project (2009-2012) entitled ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’...concerned with innovating digital curatorship in relation to Sierra Leonean collections dispersed in the global museumscape. Building on research in anthropology, museum studies, informatics and beyond, the project considered how objects that have become isolated from the oral and performative contexts that originally animated them can be reanimated in digital space alongside associated images, video clips, sounds, texts and other media, and thereby be given new life."

"The Sierra Leone Memory Project is an oral history project dedicated to recording testimonies from survivors of the brutal civil war that occurred in Sierra Leone from 1991-2002, including former child soldiers, amputees, and rape victims... Full-length testimonies, as well as shorter and more accessible video clips, will be available to the public, accompanied by written transcripts for easy browsing online."

"The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone was established by an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to oversee the continuing legal obligations of the Special Court for Sierra Leone after its closure in 2013.  ("The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up...to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996.")
-- See also: Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme (above)

This web site, using "PodBean", features information --in Sierra Leone English-- about radio program broadcasts for youth, women, community building, and conflict resolution in Sierra Leone, with selected audio podcasts [mp3 format] of current news events, radio dramas, and discussions around development and social issues.