NEWS LAWCLA, 50/50, FAWE on Discriminatory Laws Posted by Abdul D. Kposowa on Feb 16, 2007, 09:11

The Lawyer’s Centre for Legal Assistance (LAWCL), the 50/50 group and the Forum of African Women Educationalist (FAWE) have commenced their second phase of collaborative partnership of on Unequal Rights: Discriminatory Law against Women in Sierra Line funded by Westminster Foundation in the United Kingdom.

Melron Niclo-Wilson, LAWCLA‘s Director called on its partners to map out strategies for a way forward during the second phase of the implementation process. The team has embarked upon more of consultations with parliamentarians and other stakeholders to find a lasting solution to this issue of discrimination against our women, which has cut deep in our society of culture, tradition and customs.

Dr. Nameta Eshun-Baiden and Ms. Harriet Turay both of the 50/50 Group and Mrs. Eileen Hanciles of FAWE respectively spoke extensively of how the collaborating partnerships need to further sensitize the Sierra Leone publics in order to liberate the women of the country from these issues of discrimination.

However, one of the collaborating partners at the round table meeting stressed the point that “the way forward is not just reforming provisions of the laws of Sierra Leone that discriminate against women but a conscious effort to eliminate those laws in our status book,” she stressed.

It could be recalled that at the start of the project, LAWCLA with its collaboration partners edited the simplified version of the original handbook written by LAWCLA and this abridged version in most cases is used as quick reference manual for campaigners and human rights groups agitating for women’s rights.

Already the collaborating partners have produced a Radio Jingle and skit to sensitize the general public and stakeholders depicting the way and manner in which women should be treated when it comes to discriminative laws.

Earlier on in the implementation of the project, the collaborating partners succeeded in lobbying parliament to fast-track the four strategic statutes that border on Women’s Rights and the total domestication of the Convention of Elimination of all form of Discrimination against Women.