The Sierra Leone Parliament passed the Child Rights bill into law on
the 7th June 2007
. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report found that the exclusion and marginalization of key social groups like women and children was one of the factors responsible for the conflict.
Sierra Leone
is also signatory to a number of international human rights instruments of which the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is one. The CRC sets out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the children in signing and the government of
Sierra Leone
placed itself under an obligation to protect those rights.. The Child Rights Acts was drafted against this background. The Child Rights Bill merges the national law relating to children and domesticates the principles set out in the aforementioned international.
The Child Rights Bill promotes the rights of the child. This bill also aims at the advancement of the enjoyment of the rights of the child. It makes clear certain issues that were very confusing and contradictory. One of these is the definition of the child itself which it states as a person below 18 years. The Act sets out key rights for the child to enjoy. Provisions like the right to medical care, the right to be protected from exploitative labor, the prohibition of physical punishment and so many other rights which will be to the child’s benefit. This Act sets out the responsibility of the parents and the state towards the children and deliberates on how to adjudicate child matters in courts.
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme has had a keen interest in the passage of this bill. We recently wrote an article on the Child rights bill to sensitize people and make them aware of the contents of the bill. A second article discussing further provisions of the bill, now law is forthcoming. The SLCMP is delighted at the passage of the bill to law and would like to congratulate and thank all those who have worked hard to ensure its enactment.
