AN UPDATE!!

Hi Everyone,

This blog has not been updated in an extremely long time. I left Sierra Leone at the end of May 2007, and the idea of writing about it made me tremendously sad. I was completely unable to write about the experience of leaving Sierra Leone: not in the days approaching my leave, at the time of the event, or upon my return to Canada. Additionally, I felt that this was my Africanna Blog, that it had been removed from anything pertaining to my regular life, and that it was particularly Africa-based. I have not, unfortunately, been able to return to Africa since my leave.

However, I now have good news regarding my most major project in Sierra Leone. A recap of what I was doing there will help readers, I think:

When I first moved to Sierra Leone in November 2006, Sierra Leone was, according to the United Nations Human Development Index (published yearly) THE poorest country on the planet, and had been for the past ten years. Since then we've moved up one notch. (Now I believe it's Niger that is in the worst place.) This is tremendously unfortunate for Niger, but wonderful for Sierra Leone, in that it is showing at least a minimum of progress. Equally unfortunately, it is only a minimum of progress.

My work in Sierra Leone as a legislative analyst in children's rights and international law has just been published, and I know that several people here have shown an avid interest in human rights, world politics or Africa in particular. For this reason I thought I would use this venue to raise awareness about this publication.

An explanation may help:

Only two States in the world have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) - those being Somalia and the United States. The reason these two countries have refused to ratify the convention is because it states that children (meaning anyone under the age of 18) cannot be executed for a crime.

However, in International Law, a theory exists that if virtually all States (usually 2-thirds) have signed a Convention, then it is applicable to all countries, even if they have not signed it. Because of its massive ratification worldwide, the UNCRC has made waves as the most-ratified international treaty in history. It is important. Many scholars say that both Somalia and the United States are bound by its provisions, despite never having signed it.

When this treaty was written it included two important provisions:

1) That States must regularly submit Reports to the United Nations stating in detail how they had fulfilled their obligations, and:

2) That NGOs could form a "coalition" to provide an Alternative Report explaining what they had experienced in real life, on the ground, regarding their humanitarian work. This provision was considered essential to ensure that the UN was not given erroneous information about children's rights worldwide. It gave a chance for everyone else to say, "Hey wait, the Government says that they are providing assistance to schools, however what we see are: no teachers, no books, no schools. They're wrong. What gives?"

This means that the UN would be faced with two alternating reports - one from those in charge, and one from everyone else. The two, together, would be assessed by the United Nations, who would then publish their Concluding Observations. These Concluding Observations would include a several page-long report telling the State what they needed to do to fix the situation. The United Nations' observations are mandatory.

My job in Sierra Leone was to organize this Coalition and write the Alternative Report. And it has just been published. (!!)

I spent my time there reading submissions from various NGOs in Sierra Leone, assessing the convention, national laws, the education system, the health system, how former child soldiers were treated, what kind of rape/abuse crisis centers existed (if any), and talking with abused children. I visited hospitals, I spoke with former child soldiers, I spoke with victims of war whose entire families were murdered. I analysed the proposed Child Rights Act (2006) and was invited to Parliament (twice) to tell the MPs what was missing, what was needed, what wouldn't work. I was, at the time, one of the leading Child Rights Specialists in Sierra Leone due to the extensive array of subjects addressed in my report.

And it's finally been published!

For any of you who are interested in world politics, human rights, poverty, rape as a weapon of war, child soldiers, juvenile justice, health, nutrition, or law, I would strongly encourage you to read this report. Feel free to skip the complicated beginning that focuses on legislative and administrative reform and jump to the sections that interest you according to the table of contents, such as:

1. General measures of implementation
2. Definition of the child
3. Education, leisure and cultural activities
4. Civil rights and freedoms
5. Family environment and alternative care
6. Basic health and welfare
7. Special protection measures/children in emergency
8. Children in conflict with the law
9. Conclusion


Thank you on behalf of myself and all the people I worked with, all the women and children I met throughout my stay, all the war children, and all the victims of poverty and war in Africa, be they in Sierra Leone or elsewhere in Africa. Because, unfortunately, these issues are widespread and not purely Salone-based, but prevalent in almost all African countries, as well as most post-conflict societies, be they in Europe, Asia, South America, or elsewhere.

Reading this kind of publication allows you to see both sides -- and officially so -- knowing that you are not reading the humanitarian version of The Enquirer; You are not reading dramatized heart-string-pulling, please-donate, wallet-wringers. This is it, the offically-accepted, document truth, as provided by multiple national and international humanitarian workers with nothing to gain but change. Additionally, it only even skirts the major issues. :(

Thanks to anyone who bothered reading this, let alone skimming the report!

You may find it here: http://www.crin.org/docs/Sierra%20Leone_CRC-SL_NGO_Report.pdf

With so much love for Sweet Salone,
Anna