Sierra Leone: Amnesty International Celebrates 60 years of championing Humanity
By Alusine Sesay
Amnesty International, a global human rights movement, has on Friday May 28, 2021, celebrated 60 years since its foundation by Lawyer Peter Benenson in 1961.
Over the past six decades, the rights organization has worked on promoting and protecting human rights through sustained campaigning and research, strengthened networking and empowering people and communities to uphold human rights to make the world a better place.
To celebrate these accomplishments, Amnesty International Sierra Leone chapter has lined up a series of activities including fund raising march, award program, press briefing and thanksgiving service, among others.
Solomon Sogbandi is the Executive Director of Amnesty International Sierra Leone chapter. He said that the work of Amnesty International has contributed greatly to improving Human Rights in the Country, and added that the launch of Amnesty International’s reports on poor health care delivery system in the country for women, children precipitated the government of Sierra Leone in 2010 to launch the Free Health Care Programme for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five years.
The Executive Director said that in 2019, Sierra Leone lifted the ban on pregnant girls accessing education after it was found to be discriminatory, and added that decision had been prompted by Amnesty’s intervention, drawing on its own research on the issue as well as relevant International law.
Sogbandi said that the organization has produced a series of reports on the death penalty and other human rights issues in Sierra Leone, and added that their research also looked at the excesses of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) spanning 10 years. He noted that not much has been done by the authorities to address such excesses by the police.
He furthered that Amnesty’s reports on women’s rights in Sierra Leone also necessitated the enactments of the three Gender Acts — The Devolution Estate Act; The Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act, 2009; and the Domestic Violence Act.
Sogbandi, said that activities of the organisation are purely funded from subscriptions from members, adding that the organisation hardly accepts funding from governments.
Human Rights Coordinator, Emmanuel Sattie said that the vision of Amnesty is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international human rights standards; their mission is to conduct research and generates action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.
One of the oldest members of Amnesty International Sierra Leone chapter, Alieu Badara Sesay said that Amnesty International Sierra Leone Chapter was established in Sierra Leone in 1982 in Kambia village by few Sierra Leoneans, and was formally recognized by the parent body in United Kingdom in 1989. He said that the organisation moved from group status to section status after 15 years, and informed that when the organisation started operations in Sierra Leone, being a human rights activist was a risky endeavour and nobody wanted to associate with activists.
He maintained that it takes a lot of commitment to be a human right defendant. “It is not an easy job. We went through a lot. A lot of friends kept away from us,” he said.
Sesay said even though they worked under very risky conditions they were able to establish Human Rights clubs in schools and colleges to recruit more activists.
Amnesty International was founded on the idea that ordinary citizens could change the world by joining forces.
Today, Amnesty is a global human rights movement that draws on the collective strength of over 10 million people — each committed to the struggle for justice, equality and freedom around the world.
Underlining the importance of being a grass-roots movement, Amnesty has brought people together from around the world to demand that the rights of every human being be respected and protected.
