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Legal Aid to launch Access to Justice campaign

Legal Aid to launch Access to Justice campaign
The Sierra Leone Legal Aid Board in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice will launch the ‘Scaling Up Access to Justice Leaving No One Behind’ campaign at an elaborate ceremony on Thursday, September 8 in the forecourt of the Guma Building on Lamina Sankoh Street in Freetown. The campaign which is expected to attract over 120 civil society organizations will be launched by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Joseph Kamara. 
According to the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, the Attorney General has been honoured with launching the campaign for ensuring remand inmates who had been literally forgotten at the Pademba Road Correctional Center are served indictments.  
Ms. Carlton-Hanciles said the campaign will impact everybody regardless of location and status. ‘We have been expanding our presence upcountry since August and the launch will coincide with the deployment of six lawyers who will be based in six district headquarter towns,’ she said. ‘Each lawyer will provide legal services to the poor and vulnerable in two districts. Also, our Outreach officers and Paralegals who have been deployed since August will step up legal education through community outreach events in every corner of the country.’
According to Ms. Carlton-Hanciles, the campaign will see the setting up of Community Advisory Bureaus in Wards around the country. These Bureaus will be the first port of call for members of the community who have law and order issues. They will mediate cases which fall within their remit and the others they will refer to the Police, Ministries Land, Labour and Social Welfare and relevant Institutions and organizations as the case may be.  
Also, the campaign will include the implementation of the ‘Child Protection under the Law’ programme to assist with enforcing the rights of children especially relating to the Child Rights Acts and the Sexual Offences Act.  According to Ms. Carlton-Hanciles, issues of early marriage, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence will be a priority for the programme.

Ms.  Carlton-Hanciles hinted that even though the campaign will be led by the Legal Aid Board Aid, Trusted Partners in civil society will have a massive role to play in ensuring it creates maximum impact. ‘They have the numbers which are a rich resource we will tap into,’ she said.  ‘They will be involved in legal education and will also be empowered through training to mediate minor non-criminal offences within their respective organizations.’

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