MEMORANDUM:
TEENAGE
PREGNANCY IN SIERRA LEONE
Date: August 5, 2013
To: FXB
Center for Health and Human Rights
Sierra Leone Dissemination Event—Fall
2013
From: Bledar Blake Zenuni, Summer 2013
Teenage
Pregnancy in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone continues to
suffer from a lack of health care facilities in the country as a result of the
Sierra Leone Civil War, although reconstruction efforts are currently under
way. One of the greatest challenges Sierra Leone faces in Healthcare is the
reduction of (and providing service programs for) teenage pregnancy. In
addition to lack of proper resources, lack of implementation and enforcement
of laws, child marriage, and insufficient education and service delivery
programs present tough challenges to governmental, private and NGOS working
on teenage pregnancy in Sierra Leone.[i]
High Pregnancy and Drop-Out Rates:[ii]
·
Teenage
pregnancy levels contribute to the low levels of girls attending secondary
school in Sierra Leone, according to Kanu. Just 17 percent of girls and 21
percent of boys attended secondary school from 2000-2007, according to the
UNICEF’s 2009 State of the
World’s Children’s report.
·
Just
over 40 percent of women, now between the ages of 25 and 29 had their first
baby by the time they were 18, and 12 percent of them by age 15, according to
the yet-to-be-published 2009 government demographic health survey (DHS).[iii]
·
Most girls drop out
of school by age 15, mainly because of pregnancy, Kanu said. Boys tend to drop
out by age 16
·
Statistics
has shown the high prevalence rate in the Northern Region, and appealed to
Traditional and Religious Leaders, including Teachers and other stakeholders to
onboard what he referred to as the vehicle for prosperity for the future of our
girl child and the betterment of Sierra Leone.[iv]
Lack of Implementation and
Enforcement of Laws[v]
·
The
majority of cases of sexual assault are not reported because of various
reasons, including: culture of silence and impunity, avoiding stigma, lack of
support and information, and fear of reprisals.
·
Going
through to the police or through the legal process is burdensome and expensive
in Sierra Leone; instead, families of victims are more likely to pursue
settlements, which are sometimes brokered by traditional, religious, and/or
local leaders.
·
Far
to reach areas are difficult for police to reach because police may lack the
necessary means of transportation.
·
There
is a severe shortage of social workers who can support investigations.
·
There
is a need strengthen the institutions required to implement and enforce laws
namely the police, the courts, Ministries of Social Welfare, and Health and
Parliament.
Insufficient Education and
Service Delivery Programs
· Teenage girls and young
people are not provided with the education and life skills that boosts self
esteem, and to say no to sexual activity.
· Negative stereotypical
behavior is associated with almost all teenagers by parents, traditional and
religious leaders and the community as a whole.
· Improper preventive
measures by parents and community harms
teenagers because it forces them into marriage and takes them away from school,
impeding their development.
Current Events[vi]:
· New local laws being passed
by village chiefs in northern Sierra Leone decree when a school girl is
impregnated by a male student, both must drop out of school, causing concern
among child protection experts.
· Officials of Ministry of Health & Sanitation
along with officials of Ministry of
Social Welfare, Gender & Children’s Affairs, have teamed up with the
wife of Vice President Alhaji Samuel Sam
Sumana to promote measures aimed at
combating the growing trend of teenage pregnancy.
· The team calls on all
Sierra Leoneans to “give the government the necessary support that would allow
girls to be girls and not mothers.[vii]
· The strategy articulates
not only reproductive health issues but other health components that have to do
with the development of the nation.
· The team expressed the
need to educate young girls at age 10, so as to “give them the required
education and discipline that would make them role models in society,” as well
as condemning early marriage and calling on local authorities to institute By
Laws in their various communities.
· The Wife of the Vice President
opined that adolescent pregnancy is deep rooted in poverty, gender inequality,
violence, earlymarriage, power imbalances between adolescent girls and their
male partners, lack of education, and the failure of systems and institutions
to protect their rights
· The National Strategy she said
therefore involves all sectors of society in a nationwide effort to target
adolescent and young people, and provide a road map to change the lives of
women and girls in Sierra Leone
Recommendations
for the Way Forward
Recommendations
for policy and the way forward to reducing and providing service programs for
Teenage Pregnancy include: enabling religious and traditional leaders to be
champions for the rights and well beings of young girls; focusing on
strengthening education campaigns to educate girls and their families with accurate and appropriate information to
prevent teenage pregnancy and child marriage; legal reform and review of all
laws concerned with the matter. The considerations below are of particular
value (King, 2013):
·
Legal
reform and review of all laws including customary laws using international
standards and best practices of laws on children and youths. Repeal section
27(4)(d) which permits discrimination against women.
·
Reform
of criminal justice laws for successful outcomes of investigations and
prosecutions in particular the repeal of the strict legal requirement of
corroboration, statute bar and use of medical reports and evidence from only
doctors in the prosecution of sexual offences.
·
Establishment
of a Family Court provided in the Child Rights Act that will be gender
sensitive and child friendly.
·
The
provision of a sustainable legal aid and witness and victim support for
offences involving children.
·
Capacity
building for security and judicial personnel on child justice issues.
·
Operation
of an updated sexual offenders’ register and a monitoring and follow up system
of such persons who are always likely to reoffend.
·
Addressing
corruption and lack of political will to investigate and prosecute cases.
·
Recruitment
and capacity building of social workers, police and judicial personnel on child
justice issues as well as encouraging effective collaboration with traditional
and religious leaders.”
-King, Bintumani Hotel, Freetown, Sierra
Leone, May 14-15, 2013.
References
[i] See Awareness Times: Sierra
Leone News & Information: <http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200523378.shtml>,
August 1, 2013
[iv] Jamesina King, Commissioner, Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone at
the Traditional and Religous Leaders Forum on Teenage Pregnancy and Child
Marriage, <http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/58417> 2013. Web.
[v] Jamesina King, Commissioner, Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone at
the Traditional and Religous Leaders Forum on Teenage Pregnancy and Child
Marriage, www.sierraexpressmedia.com, 2013.
Awareness
Times: Sierra Leone News &
Information: <http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200523378.shtml>, August 1, 2013.
Photo
Credit:
See image, p.1: Unicef, 2013
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