AdvocAid pushes for the decriminalisation and declassification of petty offences in Sierra Leone

On Thursday, February 15, 2024, AdvocAid Sierra Leone, engaged members of the Legislative and Human rights committees in Parliament on the decriminalisation and declassification of petty offences otherwise known as “misdemeanours” in Sierra Leonean law. The engagement falls under the project titled: Decriminalising Poverty; Advocating for Legal Reforms on Petty Offences in Sierra Leone. 

The organisation in partnership with the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), is aiming at decongesting the country’s overcrowded correctional facilities through legal reforms such as repealing laws deemed to be applied subjectively to affect a selected group of people, particularly those who work in the informal sector of the country.

“We have presented our position paper and the bill which we drafted to Members of Parliament, outlining what we want to see. The goal is to see a change from imprisonment to other forms of punitive actions such as fines, for petty offences”, said Fatmata Lamarana Bah, AdvocAid’s project officer. They are also pushing for the promotion of non-custodial measures in pre-trial stages to minimise instances of detention.

 AdvocAid’s engagement with Parliament is an addition to the different stakeholder engagements they are holding in their quest to see that petty offences are decriminalised and declassified.

Additionally, the organisation filed a matter at the ECOWAS Court of Justice to have the country’s loitering laws repealed. Bah said the loitering laws target sex workers in particular. AdvocAid’s lead attorney in the case Eleanor Thompson told the BBC in 2022 that the “subjective determination of a Police officer (on a good or satisfactory account of a person found in a place) leaves the laws open to being enforced in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner.”

Other petty offence areas they are pushing to be amended include fraudulent conversion, Obtaining Money/Goods by False pretences, and minor traffic offences. AdvocAid says the offence of fraudulent conversion and obtaining goods/money by false pretences are wrongly applied to civil debt matters, criminalising the bn non-payment of debt without fraudulent intent.

Members of the Legislative and Human Rights Committees in Parliament welcome the AdvocAids move, citing concerns stemming from overcrowded correctional facilities, the heavy burden on the government to cover their cost and the impact of petty offences on human rights. With the Criminal Procedure Act finally on Parliament’s agenda for amendments, MPs say AdvocAid’s move came at the right time.