By Foday Moriba Conteh
With the aim of bringing together women leaders and other stakeholders to deliberate on the existing policies and laws that seek to address inequality and discrimination against women and girls in the country, Fifty-Fifty Group Sierra Leone, in partnership with Social Enterprise Development (SEND),with support from the European Union and Irish Aid on Friday 3rd February 2023 concluded its 3rd annual two-day National Women’s Conference on the theme: “Beyond Broken Promises: Making 2023 the Year of Accountability for Women in Sierra Leone.”
The two days conference which brought together women representatives from the 16 districts across the country was held at the Fifty-Fifty Group headquarters on Tower Hill in Freetown.
Giving the purpose of the conference, the Past President of Fifty-Fifty Group Sierra Leone, Haja Mariama Fofanah, stated that the two days conference seeks to discuss the limitations and barriers to women’s increased participation especially at the political decision-making levels.
She disclosed that during the two days conference presenters and those who will be discussing (both male and female) drawn from diverse fields will present a contextual analysis of the various topics such as the status of the recommendations of the constitutional review process and the advantages and disadvantages of the Proportional Representation System for women, amongst others.
She stated that participants enriched the discussion and contributed to the development of a national action plan, which at the end of the two-day deliberations they handed over to political parties for their review and commitment to the full implementation of the plan.
Haja Mariama Fofanah reiterated that the rationale behind the engagement was to bring together women leaders and other stakeholders to deliberate on the existing policies and laws that seek to address inequality and discrimination against women and girls with the theme “Beyond Broken Promises: Making 2023 the Year of Accountability for Women in Sierra Leone.”
In her keynote address, Basita Michael Esq expressed appreciation for the conference’s theme, “Beyond Broken Promises: Making 2023 the year of Accountability for Women in Sierra Leone” which she said holds a critical significance.
Basita Michael Esq also stated that Sierra Leone has made some progress and significant strides in recognizing and protecting women’s rights through the adoption of various legal and policy frameworks. Some of the key laws and policies that address women’s rights in Sierra Leone include: the Sierra Leone Constitution, of which, she said the constitution guarantees the right to equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
She added that the 1991 Constitution also promised that every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and the State shall ensure equal rights and access to all opportunities and benefits. It also promised protection from discrimination.
Basita Michael Esq maintained that the promises made by political parties in and outside their manifestos have promised that women will be empowered and discrimination against them will not be tolerated and that an examination of their manifestoes will illustrate that.
She said that despite those promises and the efforts, both nationally and internationally, there are still overwhelming challenges and shortcomings in turning these commitments into reality and women in Sierra Leone continue to face various challenges, including gender-based violence.
“An estimated 62 per cent of women age 15–49 report having experienced physical or sexual violence, according to the 2019 Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey (SLDHS), inadequate access to education. World Bank data shows that the gap in adult literacy between men and women, is 15.2, larger than the gap of the Sub-Saharan Africa aggregate,” she added.
Basita Michael Esq noted that despite women making up 51% of the population in Sierra Leone under customary law, women in rural Sierra Leone have few safeguards against discrimination and other violations and abuses of human rights.
“I can talk all day about the real and challenging obstacles that women face. However, my intention is not to make you feel powerless or hopeless but to emphasize the need for us to fight harder and more passionately than ever before for a more inclusive and just society, not just for ourselves but for generations to come. While the adversities we face as women are many, we can draw inspiration from the quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who reminds us that adversity is not a cause for despair but a call to action,” she energized.
Giving the declaration tag “The Tower Hill Year of Accountability Declaration 2023” at the end of the conference, the Chairperson of the conference, Yasmin Jusu Sheriff, said that the declaration reflect the recommendations put together by women representatives from the 16 districts across the country.
She said that during the conference women presents were educated on various topics which included the status of the recommendations of the constitutional review process, the implementation of the GEWE Act 2022, the Proportional Representation System for women, the Women Manifesto 2023 and the Public Elections Act 2022 among others.
Yasmin Jusu Sheriff said that while they acknowledge and appreciate years of advocacy, mobilization and struggle by the women of Sierra Leone, the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment legislation has finally been passed, and while they thank the President His Excellency Julius Maada Bio and the Parliament of Sierra Leone for the bold step taken towards the passage of the GEWE Act 2022 they cannot deny that the current law is less than they hoped for and expected.
She said the women of Sierra Leone are therefore calling for additional realistic and urgent legislation amendment of the current Act and other laws or policies on women in line with their recommendations below.
On the Proportional Representation System, she said the women therefore recommended that political parties must ensure that among their three candidates women aspirants must be set at number 1 or 2 of their parties’ nomination lists.
The Chairperson said in addition they also recommended that ECSL and other electoral bodies should embark on more robust sensitization on the Proportional Representation System, adding that organizations should engage political parties in order to ensure that if the candidate for President, Mayor or Chairperson is a male the Deputy must be a woman.
On the GEWE Act 2022, she said that women urged for the popularization of the Act across the country through mass media engagement, training etc. adding that they further called on international organizations and others to fund the participation of female candidates in the forthcoming elections.
These and many other recommendations were made they these women during their group discussions at the conference.
