Representatives of the Child Protection Section of UNICEF Sierra Leone and the consultant from the UN Peace-Building Fund, and the Legal Aid Board (LAB) have had discussions on the June 2023 general elections at the LAB Wilberforce Street office Freetown.
The discussion focused on Legal Education on the electoral laws, and legal assistance and representation for children and others who commit electoral offences. The former involves school outreach events while the latter involves legal assistance to juveniles under police investigations and legal representation for those who are charged to court.
The Executive Director of the Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, said the Board would also provide legal assistance to children and others before the Local and Informal Courts for elections-related disputes and minor offences at community level.
In addition, the Board will also use its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)/Mediation Panel to settle elections-related community level disputes and minor offences such as fighting, threatening remarks, disorderly behaviour and abusive language relating to children. The ADR/Mediation will bring about speedy resolution of matters before they could threaten the peace of the community.
Ms. Claire Carlton-Hanciles spoke about the Board’s Anti-Elections Violence Campaign which was launched on 8 March 2023. She noted that the campaign was dedicated to ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections before, during and after the elections.
She informed her guests that staff of the Board had been trained on electoral laws; in addition, 12 motorbikes had been distributed to Paralegals in 12 of the 16 districts. She noted that school outreach events on the electoral laws had already commenced.
Responding to a question from the consultant from the UN Peace-building Fund, Dariusz Dziewanski on how the challenges of the March 2018 Elections compare with those of June 2023 Elections, Ms. Carlton-Hanciles spoke about the elections-related violence during rallies in the last elections. Also, there were cases of violence resulting from the destruction of election posters, billboards and ballot boxes.
The representatives of the Child Protection Section of UNICEF at the meeting were Neha Naidu, Hyunjung Lee and Stefano Schwarz.