Where We Work
AdvocAid was founded in and operates across the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Our head office is in Freetown, with regional offices in Makeni and Kenema. From these, we operate in Freetown, Waterloo, Masiaka, Bo, Kenema, Makeni, and Port Loko. Home to 7.7 million, Sierra Leone is a vibrant and bustling country that so many people fall in love with.
Beauty aside though, Sierra Leone faces multiple challenges that have been exacerbated by a brutal civil war and most recently, an Ebola outbreak (2014-15). The war (1991-2002) will forever be remembered for its use of child soldiers, brutal mutilations and the role that ‘blood diamonds’ played in fuelling such atrocities.
Just over a decade later, as the country was getting back on its feet, it was hit by the world’s worst Ebola outbreak (2014-15), which took the lives of over 3,955 people and resulted in a State of Emergency, fractured health system, 12,023 orphans, months of school closures and the demise of many businesses.
Combined with neglected state structures and services, these issues leave Sierra Leone as one of the poorest countries in the world in which life expectancy hovers around 45, just 43% of the population are literate, 51% of the population live on less than $1.25 a day, women face continued marginalisation and an archaic legal system leaves too many people open to human rights abuses.
Law in Sierra Leone
The legal system in Sierra Leone is weak, with the overwhelming majority of detainees going without representation. Coupled with this, low education levels and poor understanding of legal procedures results in many suspects admitting guilt inadvertently.
For too many people, many months are spent needlessly on remand, there are constant adjournments, prisoners face excessive sentences, appeals are not lodged, case files go missing and wrongful convictions go without redress. As a consequence, the prison system suffers from overcrowding, a lack of specific facilities for women and their children and a deficiency of basic needs.
There are estimated to be just 500 lawyers in Sierra Leone – one per 15,500 people. Many of these lawyers base themselves in the capital, Freetown, where they can work for the large corporates or in private practice. Poverty ensures they’re out of reach for the majority of the population.
Following extensive campaigning from AdvocAid and other Civil Society Organisations, the Sierra Leone Legal Aid Act was passed in 2012. AdvocAid is the only provider of comprehensive and holistic free legal advice, representation and support services for women in conflict with the law in Sierra Leone and will continue to work with and support the recently formed Legal Aid Board whose task it is to co-ordinate and increase delivery of legal aid services across Sierra Leone.
Women in Sierra Leone
AdvocAid was founded to respond to a dire need to support women in the judicial system. Sierra Leone remains a patriarchal society; one where women are disadvantaged and under-represented in both the traditional and formal governance systems. Imprisonment is closely related to poverty, both as the reason for women’s offences and because women most often cannot afford legal services or to pay fines or bail.
Antiquated laws mean that too often women are imprisoned for allegations over small debts, including those incurred by their husbands, and other petty crimes. Most women in detention tend to have a background of physical and emotional abuse or mental health problems.
Women are often primary or sole carers and their detention can have a devastating effect on their family, particularly on young children, who may be detained with their mothers. Women are often abandoned by their families once arrested due to the social stigma or simply because of distances, leaving them with no one to advocate for them or to assist.
(Source: AdvocAid: Women Deprived of their Liberty – Sierra Leone, 2018)
