Blog
PRESS RELEASE: Renewing our Call on the Sierra Leone Government to Release Vulnerable, Low Risk and Pre-trial Detainees
We celebrate the release of 3 women pardoned by the President on Independence Day 2020. They were released on 21 July 2020 by the Sierra Leone Correctional Services (SLCS) along with all those who received Presidential Pardons earlier in the year. This is welcome...
PRESS RELEASE: Urgent Call On The Government to Reduce Overcrowding And Increase Support To Correctional Centres As Part Of COVID-19 Prevention Measures
The Sierra Leone Correctional Services report into the 29 April riot at Pademba Road Correctional Centre finds that 400% overcrowding, staff shortages, and the severe COVID-19 restrictions imposed on detainees were key causes. We commend the SLCS for this open and...
Lydia Kembabazi, AdvocAid’s Legal Manager: How COVID-19 Related Petty Offences Are Impacting Women’s Rights
On 4 June 2020, AdvocAid’s legal manager Lydia Kembabazi was a panelist for the Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR) webinar on COVID-19 and petty offences in West Africa. Lydia gave an insight into how measures taken to protect the Sierra Leone population from the...
PRESS RELEASE: AdvocAid Calls for Release of Child Detainees as Part of COVID-19 Prevention Measures
This year’s theme for Day of the African Child is: Access to Child Friendly Justice Systems in Africa. This occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on how our country is treating some of its most vulnerable, neglected and marginalised children – and to...
COVID-19: How AdvocAid is Responding and Adapting
While the whole world is reeling from the global COVID-19 health crisis, we are having to adapt our work in light of new restrictions across Sierra Leone. Drawing from lessons learned from our work during the Ebola outbreak, AdvocAid is working hard to develop new...
PRESS RELEASE: First COVID-19 Case Confirmed in Correctional Facility – AdvocAid Urgently Renews Call on the Government to Release Vulnerable Detainees
On 27 April 2020, the Sierra Leonean Government confirmed the first positive COVID-19 case in a correctional facility. The male detainee who was held at the Remand Centre reported sick on 20 April 2020 and was confirmed six days later to have contracted the...
PRESS RELEASE: AdvocAid calls on the Government to release Pre-Trial and Vulnerable Detainees as part of Coronavirus Prevention Measures
Title: AdvocAid calls on the Government to release Pre-Trial and Vulnerable Detainees as part of Coronavirus Prevention MeasuresYear: 2020 People deprived of their liberty, such as people in prisons and other places of detention, are likely to be more vulnerable to...
PRESS RELEASE: AdvocAid welcomes new Executive Director and Legal Officer
Title: AdvocAid welcomes new Executive Director and Legal OfficerYear: 2020 AdvocAid is pleased to announce the arrival of our new Executive Director, Rhiannon Davis, who took up the role in December 2019. In addition, we are also proud to welcome Lydia Kembabazi as...
PRESS RELEASE: AdvocAid and CARL Call for the Decriminalisation of Petty Offences to Reduce Prison Overcrowding
AdvocAid and the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) today launched a Position Paper calling for petty offences to be decriminalised in order to reduce overcrowding in correctional centres and their disproportionate impact on marginalised people in...
PRESS RELEASE: Call for a Public Commitment to the Moratorium on Executions
AdvocAid and civil society partners Amnesty International, Human Rights Defenders Network, and Manifesto 99 call on the Government of Sierra Leone to make a public commitment to maintaining the moratorium on executions ahead of the ministerial meeting at the High Level Political Forum in New York this week to review progress against the SDGs.