Human Rights During Ebola In Sierra Leone Seminar at Hogan Lovells 19 November 2014

Yesterday I went to the Human Rights during Ebola Seminar at Hogan Lovells Law Firm, Holborn Viaduct.

This is just a brief summary [and some of my own thoughts in brackets].

The organisers intend to prepare a detailed report on what was discussed plus a full length video, which I believe is crucial to the future of law and human rights in Sierra Leone and which the Diaspora and those at home need to get involved and engaged with urgently, before resumption of the suspended constitutional review. As one speaker said, the epidemic has given Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to reflect on the constitutional review and to get involved to a high degree. We should see which directions we want to take with our constitution and have maximum involvement in order to ensure it conforms to the best interests of the people and communities of Sierra Leone.

The main part of the meeting comprised of several panel presentations by legal experts and a member of Chatham House, he was not a lawyer but had been a human rights activist for a number of years.

He led off with a run-down of many areas of concern regarding the human rights situation in Sierra Leone during Ebola with many many examples of incidents of concern and questions that need to be addressed. His summary of the situation is vital viewing and I hope it was recorded.

A member of the team at the solicitors firm Hogan Lovells  (how can one call that a firm, it seemed to  occupy the whole of a building of 12 floors!) then gave a run-down of the relevant areas of international law governing human rights in Sierra Leone, namely the international declaration and the convention, these rights she said also had to be provided for in national law in order to be effective.

[However she failed to deal with treaties relating to African Union, or other conventions, which we should have protection of, such as those protecting Indigenous and Peoples Rights, etc. This was most likely due to a variety of factors. One main problem is Sierra Leone has not signed up to and ratified some conventions, or has not taken the next step of bringing them into national law, or even the third step of actually obeying and enforcing the conventions and treaties in real life as opposed to paying lip service. In some cases countries also have to sign up to the jurisdiction of any tribunal or court that would decide a state’s  guilt or innocence, even if they sign up to all these human rights agreements, if they don’t  sign up to the jurisdiction of the courts that enforce them, you end up with a right but nowhere to plead your case. In some cases conventions and treaties have no court in existence, leading to the same result. That does not mean international lobbying and campaigning cannot get results, in the absence of legal redress governments can be constantly reminded and embarrassed with the human rights they are flouting, it is very effective.]

Another member of the panel then made a presentation on the constitution of Sierra Leone itself, I believe he may be one of those involved in the review process. He highlighted a report which I think is vital for everyone to become familiar with that highlights all the HR weaknesses and to those provisions which give too much power to the state to act as it sees fit with no checks or balances. He highlighted a number of those provisions including article 23, 29  among others.  The panel member concentrated on the derogations; this is where a government can suspend part or all of a constitution or convention or its adherence to human rights laws where it is allowed to do so by that document, in times of emergency. He showed what the constitution describes as an emergency and what the president can do. Basically our constitution is full of holes and clever use for the wrong reasons can allow excessive powers to the executive branch of government, with no redress, often removing all powers from the courts to challenge any act taken by government under emergency powers.  Emergency powers must be used frugally and for the shortest possible time, they should not be too easy to invoke at the drop of a hat, should come to an end quickly and should be difficult to extend. Extension is Parliament’s role.

[But, where the sitting Parliament is merely the left hand of the executive, there is no separation of powers and parliament can be used as a stooge to empower the executive’s every whim. The entire principle of the three arms of government; the executive the legislature and the judiciary is to ensure no one arm has absolute power. Our constitution (and our Parliament in its role as check and balance) fails in this respect.  The report is useful for all of us to guide us to what we should be looking out for from a human rights perspective. However I wonder how much attention is paid to cultural, traditional and identity perspectives, after all many human rights documents are drafted by those wishing Africa to become European in its ideology which can wipe out our history, cultural priorities, everything that we are as Africans. Cultural and traditional leadership and hierarchies and ethnicities could be subverted or even discarded under Western style systems of government  and their homogenising effect, as has been the trend for decades.  ]

[A fundamental character of a constitution is the protection of individuals, communities, the vulnerable and upholding their rights. But constitutions can and have been used to promote policies and special interests and even (as in the case of Turkey for example; deny the very existence of ethnic groups within their borders and outlaw any mention of them, thus in one fell swoop removing their entitlements). In such cases provisions of the constitution are used not for the equitable  benefit and protection of human rights of individual citizens, communities, ethnic groups and religions, but instead the constitution’s articles lean towards certain ideological beliefs and special interests. Unrestrained economic growth is one such belief system and provisions that promote this ideology are usually favoured and actively encouraged by western nations and NGO’s. ]

[And yet unrestrained economic growth is very damaging to the environments and societies of most countries, in particular  those in the developing world. We are all seeing the huge landgrabs and the devastating social effect this is having on countless communities in Sierra Leone, creating entire populations displaced from their homes, heritage, land and livelihoods. We are also familiar with accompanying human rights abuses, severe land degradation, microclimate change, changing water tables, deforestation, massive pollution and health issues, and this is only the beginning as large companies have only just begun to crank up their activities. There are some in the ecological community who are attributing the source of the current Ebola epidemic to the loss of habitats caused by deforestation, thus bring man into closer more frequent contact with the original carriers of this disease. A constitution can be used to prioritise business interests and property over people, communities, livelihoods, social justice, etc and remove indigenous peoples’ and communities’ traditional land rights including rights to the resources under their feet.  Under such a constitution, the police’s role as protector of communities and vulnerable individuals is mutated by no fault of their own and they (the police) have no choice but to obey the constitution and protect business interests and property at the expense of people, communities and human rights. ]

We then heard a presentation from Yasmin Jusu-Sherrif who spoke from the women’s perspective on HR in Sierra Leone. Hers was the most stirring and inspirational speech of the evening, while technical it raised many issues pertinent to women but often to all genders as well. While speaking she lobbied the High Commissioner sitting in the audience and WHO to release figures by gender so we can see the disproportional impact ebola has had on women, she highlighted that when doctors die there is a big hubbub in the press but the majority of those who have died have been nurses (estimated at 140 or more) and the manority of those nurses are women as are the carers of the sick and the majority of those infected in the community. She strongly and repeatedly advocated for the right to health to be included in the amended constitution and given the full force of law not just mentioned as a recommendation. She highlighted the absolute refusal of the GoSL to trained women taking on their roles to answer calls at the dysfunctional 117 ebola hotline. She raised question after question after question dealing with all aspects of HR in Sierra Leone including the shooting and killings of civilians in Kono and the arrest of Tam Mbayoh who has now been released. She questioned WHETHER THE LAWYERS AND JUDICIARY OF SIERRA LEONE WERE CARRYING OUT THEIR PRIMARY ROLE  AS PROTECTORS OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS and challenging unlawful and excessive uses of power.  Or were they allowing themselves to be used. She condemned wholeheartedly the complicity of Tam Mbayoh’s lawyers in participating in a humiliating process involving begging the president’s indulgence rather than using legal means to challenge his actions. And more.

I’m afraid all the speakers raised so many vital points, too many to remember but all very important. Suffice it to say many many questions have been raised by several very sharp minds, the key is to keep these questions in the spotlight in the public eye and start to answer them. I spoke to her afterwards and asked her to input the joint KDDA KU USA press release into the proceedings and outcomes. I also reminded her of the SLUKDERT Conference of Diaspora organisations on the 29^th where all Diaspora organisations will be coming to present their experiences or share their intentions and form partnerships and collaborations.

Finally an appeal was made by the organisers Wi Di Woman Dem for partnership assistance and funds to keep their sensitisation project going in Freetown. They also wish to speak at the SLUKDERT conference. I informed them there is a shortlist being compiled of organisations to speak at the panel session but all organisations will be actively participating in the workshop break out session where the majority of the work and outcomes will be achieved. It promises to be a ground breaking session and the first of its kind, yesterday Ade Daramy and I visited the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and met with the head of their Ebola task force, they are interested in working with  SLUKDERT, and will also liaise with DfID for their involvement, I believe Ade will report on that meeting. I recommend all organisations and those individuals who have done something towards ebola response to  urgently register representatives for the SLUKDERT conference as soon as possible to ensure their voice, their needs and their district’s needs are heard and get to the right places.

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE MY NOTES OF THE MEETING AS A FULLY ACCURATE REPORT, THEY'RE JUST TO GIVE A FLAVOUR OF THE EVENT. The organisers will as I said be preparing their own accurate detailed report and will hopefully provide a full length video.