IN THE COURTROOM Melron Nicol-Wilson And the Struggle for Human Rights in Sierra Leone Posted by on Jun 24, 2009, 16:30

Melron Nicol-Wilson long workdays begin at 8 a.m. As many as 20 people are often waiting outside the small office of the Lawyers Centre for Legal Assistance (LAWCLA) in Sierra Leone’s Capital, Freetown.  They are refugees and war-displaced Sierra Leoneans, young victims of child abuse and the elder, disabled and the unemployed.  Word of mouth brought them to Sierra Leone’s first Legal Aid Centre dedicated to protecting the rights of the poor. 

LAWCLA finds many more clients in the holding cells in Freetown, overcrowded Central Prisons across the Country. Demands for legal representation among the poor and largely illiterate population is enormous.  But needs are virtually everywhere in a country emerging from a brutal 10-year civil war and decades of misrule.  Donor nations, international organizations, and the country’s Civil Society Groups have focused legal efforts and funding on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which is the key to providing accountability for past abuses and respect for the rule of law during Sierra Leone’s transition from war to peace.  LAWCLA is deeply concerned with transitional justice, but remains best known as one of the few places where the poor can turn for tangible legal help. 

“One cannot talk about human rights without the legal means to protect them, “said Nicol-Wilson” Born and bred in Freetown, Melron Nicol-Wilson committed himself to human right issues as a University Undergraduate. Those were the days when the human rights concept was a complete novelty as we were gradually moving towards the multi part democratic dispensation.  As a student, he wrote his final thesis for the conferment of the Bachelor of Law with Honours Degree in Law on how detainees were largely denied their Constitutional Rights.

At a time when the democratically elected government was in exile, Nicol-Wilson was one of the few Sierra Leonean intellectuals who placated the human rights abuses of these military officers to captivate the urgent attention of the International Community. His Qualifications include a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law, a Masters Degree in International Criminal Justice from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and several postgraduate qualifications from the University of Lund in Sweden and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. 

In 2001, he resigned his job as a Lawyer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) a sacrifice very few Sierra Leoneans could make, to establish the non-profit making Lawyers Centre for Legal Assistance(LAWCLA) together with three other colleagues.  This office, which has now been established countrywide, with Regional Offices in Bo, Kenema and Makeni, started with an office in a single room let to them by a Firm in Freetown’s down town.  At this make shift office, were four units which broadly set out LAWCLA’s priorities for research and advocacy, Litigation, Transitional Justice, Juvenile Justice, Advocacy, Gender Research and Advocacy as the Centre’s hasten to promote and protect human rights through Law with virtually no financial support.

As a fastidious person when it comes to academia, in 2001, shortly after the establishment of the Centre, he was also invited for a one (1) Semester Teaching Fellowship at the Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School in New York.  With his experience from the war in Sierra Leone, his students benefited immensely from his myriad of knowledge in the law.  After his teaching fellowship, he returned home to continue with the struggle in promoting human rights. From his personal fund, Nicol-Wilson and his colleagues won their first case, which was a matter involving a Security Guard of the Sierra Leone Port Authority who was fired when he refused to take part in a theft orchestrated by his superiors.  With his intervention, this poor man who was only able to seek redress with the coming of a pro bono institution received Six Thousand Dollars as compensation.This victory in April 2002 attracted the attention of the print and electronic media who extolled the virtues of Nicol-Wilson and his team for addressing the rights of the poor.

Notwithstanding these successes, some members of the public were critical of his initiative in representing clients free of legal cost, viewing such a venture as a recipe for encouraging crime.  These words were not enough to discourage this martyr and his team, who in 2002 and 2003 established Regional Offices in Kenema (Eastern- Sierra Leone), Bo (Southern- Sierra Leone) and Makeni (Northern- Sierra Leone) to compliment the work of the Centre’s Head Office in Freetown. In 2003 with interns from the Law Department at Fourah Bay College (who are now Magistrates and Private Legal Practitioners) Melron Nicol-Wilson and his team carried out a survey on the status of detainees and Prisoners throughout Sierra Leone.  He went to every Prison and Police Station in Sierra Leone interviewing Detainees and Prisoners and provided them with an on- the- spot legal Advice and latter Legal Representation for those who cannot afford to pay the services of Lawyers.

In December 2003, the All Works of Life (AWOL) bequeath him with the covetous and prestigious award of “Lawyer of the Year” in recognition of his work and on behalf of poor Sierra Leoneans which included provision of free legal services throughout Sierra Leone and lecturing of Human Rights and International Law free of cost at the University of Sierra Leone.

In 2004 LAWCLA in collaboration with Global Rights trained paralegals in Kailahun, Kabala and Kono and produced a handbook for paralegals in Sierra Leone, and in that same year; as Director of the Centre he was given two awards for his services to children by the Children’s Forum Network and took up the case of an indigent Indictee of the Special Court of Sierra Leone, which signaled the start of his career in the International practice of Law.  This case was to have a significant impact on the Director as he became interested on issues of International Criminal Justice in addition to human rights.

In 2005 a property at 28 Old Railway Line, Tengbeh Town valued about $200,000 was donated to LAWCLA by the Menah Pratt Family in recognition and in appreciation of the work of the Centre, and in 2006 to celebrate its Five Years of existence, LAWCLA produced an Abridged and Simplified version of a Handbook on Discriminatory Laws against Women thereby advocating for reform of laws that discriminate against Women in Sierra Leone: Time for Change thereby stating its position and arguments for the abolition of the Death Penalty in Sierra Leone.  The centre also produced a documentary entitled the Struggle for Human Rights in which it produced graphic materials of its work in promoting and protecting human rights through Law in Sierra Leone for over a period of Five Years. In 2006 also, Melron was invited on a speaking tour of the United States of America and did presentations on Human Rights and the Rule of Law at the University of Tennessee, University of Vanderbilt and the Fisk Centre in Tennessee.

On the 25^th May 2007; The Africa Day he was presented with the Prestigious Award of African Human Rights Lawyer for 2007 by the University of Pretoria in South Africa.  This was an Award given to one Lawyer in the African Continent every year for Human Rights work.  The impressive Ceremony in Pretoria was attended by hundreds of people from across the African continent. In January 2008 he co-authored a Handbook entitled “The Criminalization of Freedom of Expression in Sierra Leone-Time for Change” in which he advocated for the reform of part five of the Public Order Act of 1965 which makes Libel and Sedition a Criminal Offence.  He maintained that Journalists should not be sent to Jail for injuring the reputation of individuals but should rather pay monetary compensation. In November 2008, he produced a Simplified and Abridged versions of the HIV/AID Act of 2007, The Domestic Violence Act of 2007, The Devolution of Estate Act of 2007, The Child Rights Act of 2007 and the Registration of Customary and Divorce Act of 2007. 

He is presently conducting Training Programs on these Laws using the simplified Handbooks in Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Freetown. Further, in November 2008 he established a Private International Legal Practice and Legal Consultancy Firm called Maliaka Chambers in Freetown with associate offices in London and the United States and took his first Pupil Barrister in Chambers in April 2009. In May 2008, Melron Nicol-Wilson conducted a study tour on National Legal Aid Schemes in Ghana, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa during which he studied the operation, legislations, and successes and failures of the schemes in those Countries in a bid to assist with work in Sierra Leone for the establishment of a National Legal Aid Scheme.