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A roundtable stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the Sexual Offence Act, as amended in 2019, has been held in Freetown.
The event which also marks the official launch of the 16 days of activism was organised by the Human Rights Commission Of Sierra Leone (HRC-SL) in collaboration with Rainbow Initiative, other key institutions in the implementation of the Sexual Offences Act, and with Stakeholders from various Civil Society Organisations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) were on the 25th November, 2022 engaged at the Sapphire Court, Hospital Road Off Kingharman Road Brookfield with the aim to get updates and discuss on the status of implementation of the Act, and with specific reference to Sections 39, 44 and 45.
According to her statement, Director of Gender and Children Affairs at HRC-SL, Gloria Bayoh said the reason for the engagement is to collect data and information for report publication by the Commission.
Madam Bayoh said three years now, since the enactment of the Bill, the HRCโSL is yet to release or present any report to the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs.
This, Gloria Bayoh said, is due to lack of funding, and other key findings that are still left behind. She further expressed dissatisfaction over the non- existence of one stop center at the Kingharman Road Government Hospital and Moyamba, which were observed by the Commission during the monitoring exercise conducted.
Over detention of alleged sexual perpetrators at Police cells, she mentioned that this was another key challenge pointed at, and which led the Commission to hold an engagement with the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for a way forward.
She went on to commend the Aberdeen Women Centre, Don Bosco Fambul, Rainbo Initiative and the Family Support Unit (FSU) of the Sierra Leone Police for their cooperation towards sexual survivors and victims and the Government of Sierra Leone for the establishment of the Sexual Offences Model Court.
Ibrahim Frank Kargbo from the Rainbo Initiative presented a power point statistics on 2nd and 3rd quarter of cases related to Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).
Ibrahim Frank Kargbo thanked Irish Aid, Trocaire, UNDP and other bodies for their support to Rainbo Initiative, a National Organisation established in 2014.
Representatives from the various keys institutions, including Parliamentarians made statements on successes, challenges and way forward on the implementation process.
At the end of the engagement, action plans that would be used for follow-up and accountability were set up
