HRCSL Launches 2018 Election Report
Human Rights of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) with support from UNDP has on Tuesday 26th June 2018, launched the 2018, news Letter and special election report at the Civil Service Training Collage, Tower Hill in Freetown.
The report highlighted several series of programs of activities that placed the Commission into a right based approach to grader relevant information after the just concluded general elections.
In his statement, Chairman for the Human Right Commission Rev. James Fornah noted that the Commission is an independent national Human Rights Institution established by an Act of Parliament in 2004, under Section 7 of its 2004, Act which the Commission mandate not only to monitor but also documented violations of Human Rights and undertake studies, produce guidelines and reports as well as conduct public education and awareness raising programmes aimed at creating a culture of respect for human right in Sierra Leone.
He said that, the Commission was established in 2006 and have produced annual state report of human rights since 2007 to 20016 and established offices across the country at strategic interaction taken into consideration his leadership in fostering a human right based approach to governance and national development.
He added that, the Commission was actively involved during the just concluded 2018, general elections. He said they had undertaken several activities in a bid to enhance a culture of respect for human right before, during and after the elections, noting that, some of the Commission’s developmental strides engagement including holding a roundtable discussion with media practitioners on hate speech, conduct an inter-senior secondary school debate competition on human rights and election, holding stakeholders symposium on elections preparedness, organized a national conference on human rights and elections, trained district human rights Committees in the regions on elections monitoring, established an elections situation room; and monitored polling day in the first and second round of the election at national level.
Chairman Fornah continued that all of the above activities the Commission’s found out and observed during its monitoring aspect have been consolidated into a report known as the “Special Elections Report 2018”.
He cited their recent press release of 22nd February 2018, on the Election process and campaigning adding that the Commission strongly condemned the spite of violence, hate speech, political intolerance, inciting messages and inflammatory languages by various political party actors on the media.
He called on all registered political party leaders and their supporters to denounce violence and refrain from negative use of the media during campaign period.
He reiterated that on several occasions, the Commission had been reminded Government of its obligations in order to maintain peace and security and urged the Sierra Leone Police to execute their work with a deep sense of responsibility during that period and to provide adequate security for all Presidential aspirants as they carry out their campaigns.
The report further states that, the Commission appreciates the contribution of its development partners particularly UNDP, as key founder of most of their operational and developmental programmes. He disclosed that the Commission values the collaboration of civil society to fulfill their statutory mandate and thanked his staff as well as colleague Commissioners for their invaluable contributions over the years.
He expressed hope that the report and newsletter will stimulate an environment for consultative dialogue and engagement that will lead to radical reform in the legal an institutional Electoral landscape for the development of Sierra Leone.
He concluded that; as Human Right Institution, they remain proud to have been able to play their little part towards the successful outcome of the 2018 general elections.
as he launched and presented to their various key stakeholders including UNDP, National Electoral Commission NEC, the Political Parties Registration Commission PPRC, Chairman Legal of Human Right Commission, 50/50, the Sierra Leone Police SLP, among others.
Albert Massaquoi from NEC, representative from PPRC, the police described the report as credible and timely with commitment to ensure all that is in the report gear towards national development that will also change the narratives for political parties to abide and adhere to the code and ethnic of the regulations.
By: Mohamed Y. Turay
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