WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY RESOURCES : SIERRA LEONE
Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements | UN Documents | Government Statements and Reports | Books, Journals and Articles

UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: SIERRA LEONE

Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements

Enhancing the EU Response to Women and Armed Conflict with Particular Reference to Development Policy
European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), April 2008
Women’s multiple and diverse roles in conflict are hidden, poorly understood and, at times, consciously or unconsciously dismissed. Usually it is women’s role as victims that is given most prominence. Though, in recent years the international community has become more responsive to women’s diverse roles as actors on conflict prevention, resolution and peace-building, there is recognition that the EU’s response to this reality must be scaled up, widened and deepened. Local, national or international action that does not involve and empower women is less likely to be successful and sustainable in any field, including that which is intended to bring development or peace. This study is based on the premise that a more effective international/EU response to women and armed conflict must incorporate the three inter-related and mutually reinforcing concepts of gender equality, women’s empowerment and upholding women’s rights.

Peace, Security and Development Update: Women in Security
Conciliation Resources, March 2008
This report looks at the role of women in peace, security and development in Sierra Leone. This includes a detailed look at the country’s security sector, including the participation of women in security policy formation at the national level and security policy implementation at the community level.

Girls in Fighting Forces: Moving Beyond Victimhood
Myriam Denov, Canadian International Development Agency, 2007
Girls within armed groups have generally been neglected by scholars, governments and policymakers. This Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) paper traces the experiences of girls in armed conflict in Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Uganda. It finds that girls in fighting forces are rendered invisible and marginalised during and after conflict, although they are fundamentally important to armed groups. They experience victimisation, perpetration and insecurity, but are also active agents and resisters.

Getting Reparations Right for Victims of Sexual Violence
Amnesty International, November 2007
All victims and survivors of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws are entitled to justice and reparations. This report focuses specifically on reparations for survivors of sexual abuse, which mainly affects women and girls from rural areas in Sierra Leone. Amnesty International examines the social and individual effects of sexual violence, the failure of the government to provide measures to address its impact, including justice and reparations, and the need for the government to implement a comprehensive and effective reparations programme to get reparations right for victims of sexual violence.

Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone: Mapping Challenges, Responses and Future Entry Points
International Alert, August 2007
Historically, women have been discriminated against and are heavily under-represented in the traditionally male-dominated political and socioeconomic decision-making structures of Sierra Leone. Gender inequalities are prevalent throughout society, with women being more likely to be illiterate and suffer extreme poverty, their rights are frequently violated, and they have little access to resources or opportunities. This burden affects society as a whole, and can adversely affect the potential for sustainable peacebuilding and development by disempowering and marginalising more than half of the population. Despite this, gender-based violence (GBV), which can be loosely defined as violence that is directed against a person on the basis of gender or sex, has received relatively little attention in post-conflict reconstruction strategies. As this report illustrates, GBV is to be an endemic problem throughout Sierra Leone, and it prevents women from contributing to and participating fully in peacebuilding efforts.

Sierra Leone Country Report on Human Rights Practices
US Department of State, March 2006
Widespread poverty, an infrastructure devastated by the civil war, and decades of bad governance influenced the human rights situation. The following human rights problems were reported: abuses by security forces, including rape, and use of excessive force with detainees, including juveniles, police theft and extortion, poor conditions in prisons and detention centers, official impunity, including for alleged manslaughter, arbitrary arrest and detention prolonged detention, excessive bail, and insufficient legal representation, an inefficient and corrupt judiciary restrictions on freedom of speech and press, widespread official corruption, government and chiefdom arrest and abuse of journalists, societal discrimination and violence against women, female genital mutilation (FGM), child abuse, trafficking in persons, including children, forced labor- including by children child labor.

Silencing Sexual Violence: Recent Developments in the CDF Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone
U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, June 2005
Breaking from growing international recognition of the gravity of crimes such as rape and sexual enslavement, a decision issued late last week by a trial chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone prevents it from hearing evidence of sexual violence in one of its three cases. According to U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center Director David Cohen, “The Special Court has lost an important opportunity to highlight the nature and scope of sexual violence committed by the CDF and to create accountability for such crimes.” A report issued today by the U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center summarizes the key issues and the history behind the decision.

Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict
Save the Children, April 2005
Save the Children is today calling on world leaders to better protect the large numbers of vulnerable and innocent girls whose lives are destroyed every year by conflict, with the launch a new report ‘Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict’. The report identifies a ‘hidden army’ of girls, some as young as eight, who are abducted against their will to live life in the army. The roles of the girls vary from being actual soldiers through to serving as porters, cleaners and cooks. Almost all are forced to serve as sex slaves or ‘wives’.

Silent Victims, Young Girls at Risk: An Evaluation of Post-War Rape and the Response to Rape in the Provinces of Sierra Leone
Campaign for Good Governance, Sierra Leone, December 2004

Where Are the Girls?: Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After War
Susan McKay and Dyan Mazurana, Supported by the Canadian International Development Agency's Child Protection Research Fund, March 2004
Dyan Mazurana and Susan McKay's study, Where are the Girls?, raises our awareness of the militarization of the lives of girls in fighting forces and the role they play. The authors use data gleaned from their research in Northern Uganda, Mozambique and Sierra Leone to reveal that girls in fighting forces are not, and never have been, simply "camp followers." This study is addressed to all those who work in countries that are in conflict or ravaged by war, whether they are community groups or multilateral, governmental, or non-governmental organizations. Where are the girls, if they are not counted as part of the military when the time comes for disarmament, demobilization and rebuilding of societies?

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Sierra Leone: Promotion of Human Rights and Protection for Women Still Required
Refugees International, Sarah Martin and Cliff Bernath, March 2004

From Combat to Community: Women and Girls of Sierra Leone
Dyan Mazurana and Khristopher Carlson with contributions by Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, January 2004

War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Popoulation-Based Assessment
Physicians for Human Rights, 2002/2003
This study released by PHR with the support of the UN Assistance Mission in Sirerra Leone (UNAMSIL) reports that internally displaced women and girls in Sierra Leone have suffered an extraordinary level of rape, sexual violence and other gross human rights violations during their country's civil war. The forward ofthe report is written by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Cause and Consequences (1994-2003). See JAMA article- exerpted from the report- under Books, Journals and Articles below.

"We'll Kill You if You Cry": Sexual Violence Widespread in the Sierra Leone Conflict
Human Rights Watch, January 2003
Human Rights Watch has documented widespread and systematic use of rape and other sexual violence during the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone. The people responsible for these crimes must be held accountable. This 75-page report presents evidence of horrific abuses against women and girls in every region of the country by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), as well as other rebel, government and international peacekeeping forces.

Voting for Peace, Survival and Self-Reliance: Internally Displaced Women Go to the Polls in Sierra Leone
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, September 2002
The May 14, 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone marked a significant milestone in the consolidation of the country's peace. Cognizant of the role of bad governance in the origins of the 11-year civil war that formally ended in January 2002, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children's Protection Partnership office in Sierra Leone encouraged internally displaced women to register and vote for the candidate of their choice- a step that the Women's Commission considered critical to improving women's lives and to ensuring their role in the reconstruction of Sierra Leone.

The Situation of Women and Girls in the Pre-Conflict, Conflict and Post-Conflict Sierra Leone
Jamesina King, Campaign for Good Governance. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2002

Guinee et Sierra Leone-"Nulle Part Ou Aller"
Amnesty International, October 2001

Sexual Violence within the Sierra Leone Conflict
Human Rights Watch, 26 February 2001
Throughout the nine year Sierra Leonean conflict there has been widespread and systematic sexual violence against women and girls, including individual and gang rape, sexual assault with objects, such as firewood, umbrellas and sticks, and sexual slavery. The perpetration of sexual violence is often marked by the systematic breaking of taboos and undermining of cultural values.

Sierra Leone: Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence Against Girls and Women
Amnesty International-Canada, 30 June 2000

Mano River Women Front-Line Action: Making Sense of a Senseless War
Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS), 2000

Sierra Leone: The Way Forward: Meeting of Sierra Leonean Women in Guinea
Sierra Leone Women's Forum and Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS), Guinea, 1997
The Sierra Leone Women's Forum is a group of Sierra Leonean refugee women living in Guinea, who meet once a week to discuss issues that relate to their lives as refugees in Guinea and also that relate to the current crisis that forced all of them to leave Sierra Leone. The group is not linked to a political party. It provides a support system to its members. One of its fundamental principles is the belief that women can and must be part of the process of resolving the Sierra Leonean crisis. It is made up of women who were already part of the Women's Forum in Sierra Leone and of women who had never previously taken an active interest or role in public affairs. This document contains a platform for moving forward beyond the armed conflict, strategies for women to become involved in the peace process and the needs of women in Conakry.

UN Documents

Proposed Terms of Reference (TORs) for the Gender Theme Group of the UN System in Sierra Leone
UN Country Team (UNCT), Sierra Leone, 2004
The Theme Group will provide leadership towards systematically and effectively addressing gender perspectives in the context of the UN’s assistance to Sierra Leone, particularly within the context of UNDAF and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will be an instrument for dialogue and the development of common strategies, programmes and action plans in appropriate circumstances. The Theme Group will be a forum for the UN system to interact with other development actors, including donor agencies, government and NGOs, committed to gender responsiveness in development practice.

Faces: Women as Partners in Peace and Security: Policing with Compassion in Sierra Leone
UN Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) and UN Department of Public Information, October 2004

UNIFEM and Urgent Action Fund Support Peace-Building Process In Sierra Leone: New initiative launched to strengthen capacity of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
UNIFEM Press Release, Freetown, 17 April 2003

Government Reports and Statements

Presidential Speech at the Launching of Paramount Chief Ella Koblo Gulama's Biography
Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, 24 June 2003

Statement at the Twenty Third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century
Her Excellency Mrs. Shirley Y. Gbujama, Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, 9 June 2000

Books, Journals and Articles

The Status of Women in Sierra Leone
Zaniab Joaque Standard Times - Freetown February 11, 2005

Gender Awareness in Research on Small Arms and Light Weapons: A Preliminary Report: Sierra Leone
Emily Schroeder, Vanessa Farr and Albrecht Schnabel. swisspeace. Working Paper Series. Bern, January 2005

Letter from Sierra Leone: Prevalence of War-Related Sexual Violence and Other Human Rights Abuses Among Internally Displaced Persons in Sierra Leone
Physicians for Human Rights with the support of UNAMSIL: Lynn Amowitz, MD, MSPH, MSc; Chen Reis, JD, MPH; Kristina Hare Lyons, MALD; Beth Vann, MSW; Binta Mansaray, MA; Adyinka Akinsulure-Smith, PhD; Louise Taylor, MBA, LLM; Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD. JAMA (reprinted). Vol 287, No. 4, 23/30 January 2002

Empowering Women in Sierra Leone
International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC Newsletter:Sierra Leone, September 2001-February 2002
Assisting Sierra Leonean women to resettle and rebuild their lives after years of conflict is a priority for the ICRC and the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS). Women are generally those most affected in situations of armed conflict. A large-scale community-based vegetable farming project was launched by the ICRC and SLRCS to improve the living standard of women and to enhance thier income-generating capabilities.

War and the Need for Citizen Action: Voices from Sierra Leone
Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff. Accord. Paying the Price: the Sierra Leone Peace Process. Vol. 9, September 2000

Women Peace It Together
Ferial Haffajee. Flame/Flamme: African Sisters Online, November 1999

Gender and Conflict in Sierra Leone
Conciliation Resources with the support of CARE UK, CONCERN Universal, Tear Fund, ACTIONAID, MERLIN and Christian Aid, September/October 1997
Even prior to the six-year civil war in Sierra Leone, opportunities for women and girls were limited at best, at worst non-existent, particularly in rural areas.