Fact Sheet: Pretrial Justice and Paralegals in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries, near the bottom UN Human Development Index. The country’s legal profession is severely underdeveloped with less than 400 practicing lawyers serving a population of 5.7 million. With most lawyers based in the country’s capital, professional legal services remain unaffordable and inaccessible for the vast majority of detainees, especially in rural areas.
In 2009, the NGO Timap for Justice began testing the effectiveness of using paralegals to provide legal assistance to criminal defendants in Sierra Leone. This fact sheet describes the pilot scheme and the positive initial results seen in its first two years of operation. (Watch this multimedia presentation to see a Timap for Justice paralegal in action).
Topics
- Climate Justice
- Digital Rights and Fair Elections
- Discrimination and Racial Justice
- International Crimes