By Foday Jalloh
Executive Director, Legal Aid Board (LAB) in an interview called on Sierra Leoneans to keep the peace and embrace development for the betterment of all and sundry.
Madam Clara Hancile made the call at her Wilberforce Street office, Freetown when she was addressing journalists on the institution’s recent recognition by the United Nations Security Council in New York in the United States of America.
She said that the Legal Aid Board considered such recognition as a huge success because a platform was created for Sierra Leone to share its experience and develop and promote human rights issues.
According to LAB’s Executive Director, Sierra Leone was also given the opportunity to share its experience on human rights related issues and how as a country managed the situation.
She said that many were interested in the country’s human rights success stories just after the country civil war.
According to the Executive Director, she was able to win hearts and minds after taking them through the status of human rights issues in Sierra Leone before and during the advent of the country’s Legal Aid Board and its achievements within the shortest possible time was admired by many.
The provision of legal representation to deprived and less privileged in detention centers and police cells, especially for non-criminal offences and its successes can be felt in all corners of Sierra Leone, she told the media.
She also cited the Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism that has prevented many homes from broken and families from permanent separation over the past decade.
With funding from the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), LAB currently employed full time lawyers and mediation officers in all districts of the country to aid them administer justice to those in need for free and also pay attention to conflicts in and out of homes, she added.
“As an institution we are willing, but we face huge funding gaps as more work needs to be done in the area of human rights in Sierra Leone,” Clara Hancile emphasized.
She cited the releases of many people from detentions that were imprisoned for over decades for unjustifiable reasons.
“For those that the Legal Aid Board has secured their releases, I will encourage you all to keep the peace and be law abiding, LAB hands is still full with cases,” she warned.
