Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet: Pretrial Justice and Paralegals in Sierra Leone

First page of PDF with filename: Factsheet PTD Sierra Leone 02142013.pdf
Factsheet: Pretrial Justice and Paralegals in Sierra Leone Downloard the 2-page document. 190.73 Kb, PDF Download
Date
February 2013

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

Learn more about the tools we use to empower and protect

How we work

Get In Touch

Contact Us

Subscribe for Updates About Our Work

By entering your email address and clicking “Submit,” you agree to receive updates from the Open Society Justice Initiative about our work. To learn more about how we use and protect your personal data, please view our privacy policy.