The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) in collaboration with the Government of Sierra Leone, UNIPSIL, and OHCHR, in November convened a two-day national conference in Freetown to develop strategies aimed at implementing the recommendations of the final UPR report. The UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 193 UN member states once every four years.
Sierra Leone Parliament
This provides an opportunity for each state to strengthen its human rights credentials and promote the rights of its citizens. It also helps identify states that are uncooperative with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). It also has the significant potential of empowering the HRC to engage states in a timely fashion, to both encourage human rights progress and stop violations. Sierra Leone was reviewed during the 11th session of the HRC in May 2011, and the final report was adopted in September of same.
During the two-day national conference in which the keynote address was delivered by the President, Ernest Bai Koroma, several presentations were made by stakeholders. A Conference Resolution was adopted at the end of the various presentations and discussions on the different topics, including recommendations under Treaty Ratification, recommendations on Constitutional and Legal Reform, recommendations on strategies to address Women, Girls and Children’s Rights, the recommendations on Measures and Institutional Mechanisms on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Poverty Reduction, among others. This article, though, will not discuss all the substantive recommendations that were adopted at the conference. This piece will generally focus on the recommendation regarding Constitutional and Legal Reform, particularly the one which “calls on the Government to consider declaring a de jure moratorium on executions”. The abolition of the death penalty is a controversial topic the world over, including Sierra Leone. In fact during, the work of the Constitution Review Commission, it never recommended for its abolition. Instead, the Commission recommended to the Government and Parliament a biennial review of the death penalty, with a view to ultimately repealing it. It only recommended a repeal of the death penalty in all cases of treason, not involving murder. So, Sierra Leone still has the death penalty on our statute books.
Apologists of the death penalty argue strongly that it serves as deterrence to committing particularly heinous crimes. They believe that the threat of execution helps maintain law and order in the society. They seem to suggest that once crimes like murder are evenly punished, there is the likelihood that incidents of it may drastically drop. However, this argument can hardly be supported by evidence. There is hardly any proven nexus between the threat of death and the reduction of commission of crimes. Serious crimes continue to be committed on a daily basis, even in countries that still apply the death penalty. In fact, countries having the death penalty have been found to have high crime rate than those without. Also, the fact that it is still being practiced by countries such as the United States, some people argue, lend credence to its viability, particularly for developing countries like Sierra Leone, which has a high rate of recidivism. This latter argument is also deficient in weight. The United States has a controversial record of compliance with international law, and the death penalty is just one. But, if for a moment we take the United States’ retention as the basis for continued capital punishment, would it be far-fetched to ask the Government to set the same standards as the United States in all spheres of life?
The disturbing reality with the death penalty is that it violates the most basic of human rights - the right to life. It is inviolable and cannot be derogated from under any circumstance. The 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone provides for the right to life. All other rights are contingent upon this right, as without it no other right exists. Therefore, it should be jealously protected. Also, it is irreversible. That is to say, once a person has been executed, his sentence is irrevocable. Put in another way: once done, cannot be undone. So, in the event of miscarriage of justice, the convict would have been unjustly executed. As such, the death penalty permanently deprives people of the due process of the law. We seek justice and want it to be done. So when justice nods, it must be brought back to vigilance. Sadly, this will not be the case where the person’s life has been terminated. It becomes an insoluble problem of justice. The death penalty, therefore, is a dangerous penal tool in any civilized society where human dignity and human life is inviolable. As one writer puts it, “the death penalty is a relic of the earliest days of penology, when slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were common place”. It gives no consideration to the rehabilitation of convicts, an important aspect in the administration of criminal justice. Rather, it simply nurtures the treacherous idea that execution is the most effective method to curbing capital offences. This idea serves as an affront to the struggle for the protection of the right to life.
Sierra Leone’s TRC’s Report recommended thus: "Respect for human dignity and human rights must begin with respect for human life. Everyone has the right to life. A society that accords the highest respect for human life is unlikely to turn on itself…The abolition of the death penalty will mark an important and symbolic departure from the past to the future”. Abolishing the death penalty becomes even more imperative when one considers how the law has been ‘uniquely’ applied in Sierra Leone: death penalty has been used for the most part in politically-motivated cases – mostly lacking in integrity and due process. And with intra and inter party confrontations already taking centre stage on the eve of Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Council elections in the country, will it be any surprise if it is invoked to eliminate political opponents, whether real or imagined? This requires serious consideration!
There is no denying the fact that Sierra Leone has done better than many other countries in terms of defending, protecting, and promoting particularly the civil and political rights of its citizens. That we are gradually rebranding Sierra Leone’s image as a place where the human rights of people are protected and promoted. The establishment of the HRCSL is certainly a pointer to this fact. But, there is still much to be done. And, a moratorium on death penalty is definitely not enough! So even though President Koroma has said that “he feels very much at home in the human rights community”, and that he is “very proud of his human rights record”, I suggest that the icing on the cake will be the abolition of the death penalty in the country. It needs to be relegated to the dark days of our history.
Hon. Franklyn Bai Kargbo, AG
While CARL appreciates the fact that there have been no executions in the country since October 1998, it is about time that Sierra Leone learned from the global community as well as from its own history. The President should go beyond commuting all death sentences to life imprisonment and pardoning death-row prisoners. He needs to work with legislative and legal institutions to begin a genuine process of abolishing the death penalty. In this sense, Sierra Leone’s justice system has a lot to learn from the sentencing model of international criminal tribunals, including the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 February 2012 02:50
