By Millicent Sinava Mannah
Sierra Leone joined other countries in the world to commemorate the International Human Rights Day on the 10th December 2021. Caritas Freetown, a Non-Governmental Organization on that same day organized a one-day stakeholders’ engagement as a way of commemorating the day and to climax the 16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender Based Violence, an event which took place at the Kays Complex at Newton in the Western Rural Area.
Giving an overview of the program, the Lead Paralegal of the Justice and Peace Commission of Caritas Freetown, Andrew Kponeh, intimated participants that one of the reasons why they decided to conduct the engagement was to commemorate World Human Rights Day, stating that every individual is entitled to his or her own human rights.
He also pointed out that the engagement was organized against the backdrop of marking the end of 16 days of activism against SGBV, stating how in the past they have been engaging different groups to raise the awareness on SGBV and give support to the Gender Empowerment Bill.
Tobias Grosse, a Civil Peace Servant of Justice and Peace Commission of Caritas, in his statement said that the different gender roles and jobs that men and women should take are socially constructed.
Tobias continued that society does not consider women to become doctors and men to become household caretakers.
He maintained that the difference between sex and gender is that sex deals with the biological make up of human beings as created by God were as gender deals with the social and behavioral aspects of men and women, pointing out that their hearts are constructed by society, family members and the surroundings.
Tobias Grosse continued that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended 30% quota approval for women representation in Parliament 18 years ago also disclosing that they furthered recommended a 50% of equal share within a ten year period.
He encouraged everyone to see and treat men and women equally, continuing that doing so has a lot of benefits for men, because women have lot of capacities that they cannot think about and are incapable of implementing them right now because they are not yet empowered.
He told participants that each and everyone can make a change and the more people think that way, the more people they can convince until the movement gains majority support to be followed by Government’s regulations.
Santigie Koroma, Line Manager of the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police Force, said that the Unit was created purposely to join other partners in development to minimize violence against women and to investigate and prosecute all offenders that take advantage of women and children.
He expressed delight over having the Gender Bill which, according to him, is geared towards ending equalities, empowering women, furthering that for a nation to develop women should be empowered.
One of the participants, Hassan Kamara, a teacher from the Lumpa Community, in the Western Rural District, expressed his gratitude to the organization for such an engagement, stating that he has learnt a lot about SGBV stating how he will now go and enlighten his colleagues that they should not get themselves involved in sexual harassment, mentioning that he will also encourage female students to speak up if anyone tries to sexually harass them.
