a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings

There were several credible reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. In April the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) shot and killed an unarmed youth in the capital city of Freetown during a student protest. Authorities arrested and dismissed the four police officers allegedly involved in the killing, and as of September they were standing trial.

In April 2020 a riot broke out at Freetown Male Correctional Center, resulting in numerous injuries and 31 fatalities, including one corrections officer and 30 inmates. Following an independent investigation, Sierra Leone Correctional Services (SLCS) reported that the riot was sparked by several problems, including overcrowding, suspension of court hearings, and COVID-19 health restrictions. In response the government established grievance mechanisms for inmates to report complaints to correction facility management boards.

The Independent Police Complaints Board (IPCB) is the body responsible for investigating police misconduct. The IPCB is an independent civilian oversight mechanism with a mandate within the security sector to receive and investigate complaints from the public and advise the leadership of the SLP.

There were no reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The law prohibits such practices, but there was one reported instance where government officials employed them. The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) called for an investigation of SLP use of excessive force during a student protest at the Institute of Public Administration and Management in April. Officers stripped a female student and arrested her, fired teargas and smoke bombs into the crowd of students, arrested several protesters, and held them without bail. Authorities began an investigation, but no results were available as of September.

Impunity remained a significant problem in the security forces, notably in the SLP. Amnesty International noted improvements in police leadership’s enforcement of disciplinary measures, but other observers reported continuing lack of crowd control and human rights training. The IPCB investigates police misconduct.

Improvements: Authorities constructed latrines and shower facilities in the Port Loko, Bo, Magburaka, and Moyamba district correctional facilities. Several correctional facilities also implemented prison industries, such as bread baking, agriculture, and carpentry, and established inmate earning schemes, creating bank accounts for participating inmates and regularly depositing earnings from work activities. Prison authorities issued new bedding and pillows to several correctional centers. Nationwide, SLCS authorities established mechanisms for receiving prisoner complaints (see section 1.a.). The SLCS painted signs listing inmate visitation hours and phone numbers outside correctional facility walls and publicized visits as free of charge.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, but human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the HRCSL indicated that the SLP and chiefdom police occasionally arrested and detained persons arbitrarily, including members of opposition parties.

The constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary. Observers, including NGOs, assessed that the judiciary maintained relative independence.

In addition to the formal court system, local chieftaincy courts administer customary law with lay judges, primarily in rural areas. Appeals from these lower courts are heard by the magistrate courts. Paramount chiefs in villages maintained their own police and courts to enforce customary local law. Chieftaincy police and courts exercised authority to arrest, try, and incarcerate individuals. According to the HRCSL, traditional trials were generally fair, but there was credible evidence that corruption influenced many cases, as paramount chiefs acting as judges routinely accepted bribes and favored wealthier defendants. The HRCSL further reported that traditional authorities charged offenses not within their jurisdictional powers and violated the rights of persons when prescribing punishment.

To address this problem, the government sent 36 paralegals to rural areas in 2019 to improve access to justice and provide training for chiefdom officials, but the HRCSL reported that the number of paralegals and trainings were insufficient. The HRCSL and the SLP’s Family Support Unit (FSU) sometimes provided alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services to mediate and resolve rural civil disputes in partnership with the Legal Aid Board. The HRCSL referred cases that could not be resolved by ADR to the district magistrate court.

The limited number of judicial magistrates and lawyers, along with high court fees, restricted access to justice for most citizens.

The military justice system has a different appeals process. For summary hearings the defendant may appeal for the redress of a complaint, which proceeds to the next senior ranking officer, while the civilian Supreme Court hears appeals in a court-martial. According to civil society members and government interlocutors, corruption was prevalent in the redress system.

Authorities at all levels of government generally respected court orders.

The constitution and law prohibit such actions, and there were no reports that the government failed to respect these prohibitions.

The constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right, but there were exceptions.

Freedom of Expression for Members of the Press and Other Media, Including Online Media: Most registered newspapers were independent, although several were associated with political parties. Newspapers openly and routinely criticized the government and its officials as well as opposition parties. While independent broadcast media generally operated without restriction, there were exceptions. International media could operate freely but were required to register with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the government-funded Independent Media Commission to obtain a license.

The constitution and law provide for the freedoms of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights, although there were some exceptions.

See the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/.

The constitution and law provide for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights.

In-country Movement: In response to a spike of COVID-19 cases in July, the government limited interdistrict movement of individuals and implemented a countrywide curfew between 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. As of August interdistrict travel restrictions had been lifted, although the curfew remained in place.

Not applicable.

The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, or asylum seekers, as well as other persons of concern.

Access to Asylum: The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for protecting refugees. UNHCR worked with government authorities to develop standard operating procedures for refugee status determination.

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials, and the government generally implemented the law effectively. There were numerous reports of government corruption.

Corruption: In 2019 the judiciary assigned five high court justices to a new Anti-Corruption Court to deal with corruption cases brought by the Anti-Corruption Commission. The Anti-Corruption Commission indicted and charged 31 persons, convicted nine individuals, and recovered more than three billion leones ($300,000) from corrupt government officials, excluding court fines and other assets. On May 26, the High Court convicted Salihu Sheku Nyallay, former acting principal accountant of the judiciary, on three counts of corruption, and required repayment of stolen funds.

On May 29, the Anti-Corruption Commission announced an investigation into the country’s permanent mission to the United Nations for the alleged misappropriation of four million dollars earmarked for the renovation of the chancery in New York City. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission, charges were pending against five persons, including two former heads of chancery, two financial attaches, and a contractor. Separately, the Anti-Corruption Commission investigated the country’s embassies in Nairobi and Beijing for alleged corruption and mismanagement of funds from 2015 forward. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation suspended staff pending investigations, and the Anti-Corruption Commission made two arrests.

On May 31, the Anti-Corruption Commission indicted Paul Soba Massaquoi, the executive director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration, and five others on procurement-related corruption charges.

The Anti-Corruption Commission also investigated the Office of the First Lady, the Sierra Leone Maritime Authority, the National Mineral Agency, the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre, the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority, and other government organizations, with varying degrees of success. While the Anti-Corruption Commission increased the number of corruption investigations, the commission often failed to indict the most senior officials involved in corruption, charging lower-level officials instead. Media and opposition party members questioned the objectivity and independence of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

On November 17, President Bio announced the convening of a tribunal to investigate widely respected Auditor General Lara Taylor-Pearce and her deputy, Tamba Momoh, officially triggering their suspension due to allegations of misconduct. Several civil society organizations condemned the suspensions, stating the move was intended to forestall the impending release of an auditor general report allegedly accusing the administration of corruption and the president and his wife of fraudulent spending during international trips.

According to an Afrobarometer 2020 survey, citizens perceived corruption to be increasing among the judiciary, parliament, and police since 2018. In the same survey, 46 percent of respondents reported paying bribes for public services (education, health care, identity documents, and police services) in 2020, essentially unchanged from the 2018 survey result of 47 percent.

Some police, guards, and forest rangers exacted bribes at checkpoints, falsely charged motorists with violations, impounded vehicles to extort money, and accepted bribes from suspects to drop charges or to arrest their rivals and charge them with crimes. In exchange for kickbacks, police reportedly arrested persons for civil disputes, such as alleged breach of contract or failure to satisfy a debt.

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape of both men and women, with a statutory minimum of 15 years’ imprisonment for offenders. Rape was common and viewed more as a societal norm than a criminal problem. The law specifically prohibits spousal rape. The law also criminalizes domestic violence, punishable by a substantial fine and two years’ imprisonment. Although awareness of rape and domestic violence increased over the years, indictments were rare, especially in rural areas, due to medical reporting requirements, high court fees, and an inefficient judicial system. Survivors of sexual offenses, often at the encouragement of their families, tended to compromise with offenders out of court. As a result a culture of impunity persisted, which perpetuated gender-based violence. The FSU within the SLP reported increased cases of rape and sexual assault, while arrests and convictions of perpetrators were negligible. Local NGO Rainbo Initiative reported a rise in sexual and gender-based violence cases across all five Rainbo Centers in Freetown, Makeni, Kono, Kenema, and Bo, with a total of 3,584 sexual and gender-based violence cases in 2020. Of the cases, 86 percent involved children younger than age 18.

According to the FSU and the HRCSL, violent acts against women, especially wife beating and spousal rape, were common and often shrouded by a culture of silence. Survivors seldom reported sexual and gender-based violence due to their fear of social stigma and retaliation. The HRCSL and Rainbo Initiative observed an absence of medical personnel in most communities and lengthy court delays in processing cases. First Lady Fatima Bio actively promoted public awareness, calling on men to refrain from violence against women.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): The law does not prohibit FGM/C for women or girls. According to the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey, approximately 8 percent of girls up to age 14 and 83 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 had undergone some form of FGM/C. FGM/C was often performed on women and girls being initiated into traditional secret societies and was considered by those organizations and others in society as a rite of passage into womanhood. Approximately 57 percent of girls and women ages 15 to 49 had heard of FGM/C and thought the practice should continue. UNICEF polling indicated that 68 percent of respondents supported FGM/C.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government banned secret society gatherings, although some observers believed undercover FGM/C initiations continued. The economic impact of COVID-19 might have reduced FGM/C rates in the short term, but the longer-term impact was uncertain. The HRCSL reported that some girls were abducted from their homes and the streets and subjected to forced FGM/C initiation rituals.

Sexual Harassment: The law criminalizes sexual harassment. It is unlawful to make unwanted sexual advances, repeatedly follow or pursue others against their will, initiate unwanted communications with others, or engage in any other menacing behavior. Offenders faced substantial fines or imprisonment not exceeding three years, but authorities did not always effectively enforce the law. No reliable data was available on the prevalence of sexual harassment.

Reproductive Rights: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities.

Vulnerable populations lacked the ability to provide informed consent to medical procedures affecting reproductive health.

According to the Ministry of Health, FGM/C increased the risk of childbirth complications, maternal death, and infertility, in addition to posing health risks associated with the procedure itself (see the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting subsection for additional information).

No legal barriers or government policies hindered access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including access to skilled health attendants during pregnancy and childbirth, but social or cultural barriers sometimes limited such access. Religious, social, and cultural barriers adversely limited access to contraception. The law prohibits individuals younger than the age of consent from access to contraception. The availability of contraception at health facilities varied, and individuals did not have consistent access to their specific method of choice. The inaccessibility of contraceptives for adolescents contributed to the adolescent birth rate of 101 births per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19. According to the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey, the proportion of teenagers who began childbearing rose rapidly with age, from 4 percent at age 15 to 45 percent at age 19. Adolescent mothers were also more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes and to face challenges in pursuing educational opportunities. The proportion of women of reproductive age who had their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods was 57 percent. Modern contraceptive prevalence rates for women and girls ages 15 to 49 was 21 percent.

The government established “one-stop centers” for survivors of gender-based violence in six districts across the country in government referral hospitals in Moyamba, Kailahun, Pujehun, Kabala, Port Loko, and the King Harman Road Government Referral Hospital. These centers provided comprehensive care including psychosocial, legal, medical, and shelter assistance to survivors of sexual violence, including access to sexual and reproductive health services. Emergency contraception was not available as part of the clinical management of rape cases.

No legal barriers or government policies hindered access to safe and quality maternal health-care services, including access to skilled health attendants during pregnancy and childbirth, but social or cultural barriers sometimes limited such access. According to the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey, the maternal mortality rate was 717 per 100,000 live births, and 87 percent of births were attended by a skilled health attendant. Major factors in the high maternal death rate included poverty; distance to medical facilities; lack of access to sufficient information regarding availability of health-care services; inadequate and poor-quality services, especially in remote settings; cultural beliefs and practices; early marriages and childbearing; delay in decision making to seek health-care services; and malnutrition.

Discrimination: The law provides for the same legal status and rights for men and women under family, labor, property, and inheritance law. The law provides for both fathers and mothers to confer nationality to children born abroad. The law provides for equal remuneration for equal work without discrimination based on gender. Both spouses may acquire property in their own right, and women may obtain divorces without being forced to relinquish dowries.

Authorities at the Ministry of Social Welfare Affairs reported that women faced widespread societal discrimination. Their rights were largely contingent on customary law, particularly in matters of marriage, divorce, property, and inheritance, which were guided by customary law in all areas except Freetown. Formal law applies in customary as well as formal courts, but customary judges had limited or no legal training and often were unaware of formal law or chose to ignore it. Women’s rights and status under customary law varied significantly depending upon the ethnic group to which they belonged, but such rights and status were routinely inferior to those of men. Under customary law, women’s status in society is equal to that of a minor. Women were frequently perceived to be the property of their husbands and to be inherited on his death with his other property.

Discrimination occurred in access to credit, equal pay for similar work, and the ownership and management of a business. Women did not have equal access to education, economic opportunities, health facilities, or social freedoms. In rural areas women performed much of the subsistence farming and had little opportunity for formal education (see also section 7.d.).

The Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs has a mandate to protect the rights of women, but most international and domestic NGOs asserted the ministry did not have the infrastructure or support of other ministries to handle its assigned projects effectively.

Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination

There were laws to protect racial or ethnic minorities from violence or discrimination. Authorities enforced these laws.

Strong ethnic loyalties, biases, and stereotypes existed among all ethnic groups. Ethnic loyalty was an important factor in the government, armed forces, and business. Complaints of ethnic discrimination in government appointments and contract assignments were common. Little ethnic segregation was apparent in urban areas, where interethnic marriage was common.

Residents of non-African descent faced some institutionalized discrimination, particularly in the areas of citizenship and nationality.

The government made some efforts to address discrimination, such as equal access to education, medical care, employment, and credit. The government made limited efforts to address discrimination and bias against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+) persons and members of the Rastafarian religious sects.

Birth Registration: Although the constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on race, tribe, gender, place of origin, political opinion, color, and religion, the constitution also denies citizenship at birth to persons who are not of “Negro-African descent.” Non-Africans who have lived in the country for at least eight years (two years for foreigners married to citizens) may apply for naturalization, subject to presidential approval. Citizenship derived by birth is restricted to children with at least one parent or grandparent of Negro-African descent who was born in the country. Children not meeting the criteria must be registered in their parents’ countries of origin.

The National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) is responsible for the recording of vital events including births, deaths, marriages, divorces, annulments, adoptions, legitimization, and recognition of citizens and noncitizens. The NCRA is mandated to maintain an Integrated National Civil Register. In May the NCRA conducted a nationwide exercise to electronically confirm the personal details of registrants and to register any unregistered citizens and noncitizens resident in the country. Citizens largely complied with the registration process.

Child Abuse: The law prohibits child abuse, including sexual abuse of children. A pattern of violence against and abuse of children existed, and according to FSU regional offices, it increased when schools were closed during the summer months and during COVID-19 lockdowns. Cases of child sexual abuse generally were taken more seriously than adult rape cases.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage: The legal minimum age of marriage is 18: NGO Save the Children reported 13 percent of girls married by age 15, and 39 percent by age 18. Save the Children also reported that adolescent pregnancy was a driver of child marriage. Girls were more at risk of child marriage than boys, with a median age at first marriage of 18 for women compared to 25 for men. Save the Children reported that girls most vulnerable to early marriage included those from certain ethnic groups living in poor rural areas in the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Provinces, where child marriage rates were more than 40 percent, compared with 20 percent in the Western Province. According to an international news report, child marriage increased during the coronavirus pandemic. The government conducted limited prevention and mitigation efforts, including education and public-awareness campaigns.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law criminalizes the sexual exploitation and sale, grooming, offering or use of children for exploitation, child trafficking, and child pornography, although enforcement remained a challenge and conviction numbers remained low. According to the FSU, in many cases of sexual assault of children, parents accepted payment instead of taking the perpetrator to court due to difficulties dealing with the justice system, fear of public shame, and economic hardship. The minimum age of consensual sex is 18.

Displaced Children: In 2019 the NGO Help a Needy Child International reported that approximately 50,000 children worked and lived on the street, with 45,000 of them engaged in artisanal gravel production in the Western Province. The FSU reported that children living on the street were often exploited by criminals to assist in committing crimes such as theft.

International Child Abductions: The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. See the Department of State’s Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html.

There was no Jewish community, and there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.

Persons with disabilities can access education, health services, and transportation on an equal bases with others. The law mandates access to these services, and prohibits discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental disabilities in employment and provision of state services, including judicial services. The government-funded Commission on Persons with Disabilities is charged with protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of persons with disabilities. The NGO Defense for Children International stated the government did not effectively enforce the law or implement programs to make buildings, information, and communications accessible. In view of the high rate of general unemployment, work opportunities for persons with disabilities were even more limited, and begging was commonplace. with disabilities were also less likely to attend school than other children.

There was considerable discrimination against persons with mental disabilities. According to the HRCSL, several Kenema residents poured boiling hot water on a man living with a mental disability who caused a disturbance near their home. The perpetrators confessed to the crime, and authorities charged them in court.

Most persons with mental disabilities received no treatment or public services. At the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital in Kissy, the only inpatient psychiatric institution that served persons with mental disabilities, authorities reported that only one consulting psychiatrist was available, patients were not provided sufficient food or sanitation facilities, and restraints were primitive and dehumanizing.

Local NGOs documented discrimination against persons with albinism in Kenema and Freetown, including mistreatment and denial of medical care.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation is responsible for providing free primary health-care services to persons with polio and diabetic retinopathy as well as to blind or deaf persons. The ministry did not provide these services consistently, and organizations reported many persons with disabilities had limited access to medical and rehabilitative care. The Ministry of Social Welfare has a mandate to provide policy oversight for problems affecting persons with disabilities but had limited capacity to do so.

The law prohibits discrimination based on actual, perceived, or suspected HIV status, but society continued to stigmatize persons with HIV and AIDS. According to the People Living with HIV Stigma Index report for 2020, approximately 47 percent of respondents disagreed that disclosure of their HIV status had become easier over time, and 48 percent reported that disclosure of their HIV status to friends, family, or partners had not been a positive experience. The report also noted a small increase in unemployment among those living with HIV, from 38 percent in 2013 to 40 percent in 2019.

As of August there was no information regarding any action by government authorities to investigate or punish public entities or private persons complicit in abuses against LGBTQI+ persons.

The law criminalizes same-sex sexual activity between men. There is no legal prohibition against sexual activity between women. The law was not enforced.

The law does not offer protection from discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. LGBTQI+ civil society organizations alleged that because the law prohibits sexual activity between men, it limits LGBTQI+ persons from exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The law, however, does not restrict the rights of persons to speak out on LGBTQI+ human rights. No hate crime law covers bias-motivated violence against LGBTQI+ persons.

A few organizations, including Dignity Association and the HRCSL, supported LGBTQI+ persons and engaged with activists, but maintained low profiles to protect their safety and identities. Although LGBTQI+ advocacy groups noted that police discrimination against LGBTQI+ individuals had not disappeared, they reported that police were increasingly treating LGBTQI+ persons with understanding.

LGBTQI+ advocates reported the community faced challenges ranging from violence, stigma, discrimination, blackmailing, and public attack to denial of public services such as health care and justice. Advocates reported LGBTQI+ persons faced no discrimination in schools, although pupil-on-pupil discrimination was prevalent. The government reportedly registered a transgender rights organization in 2018.

It was difficult for LGBTQI+ individuals to receive health services; many chose not to seek medical testing or treatment due to fear their right to confidentiality would be ignored and their sexual identity would be compromised. Obtaining secure housing was also a problem for LGBTQI+ persons. Families frequently shunned their LGBTQI+ children, leading some to turn to commercial sex to survive. Adults risked having their leases terminated if their LGBTQI+ status became public. Women in the LGBTQI+ community reported social discrimination from male LGBTQI+ persons and the general population.

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

Community pressure and coercion to participate in traditional ceremonies and practices is prevalent in rural villages. In August the HRCSL reported chiefdom authorities in a village in Kenema District prevented a man and his family from entering their farm because they had not complied with traditional practices. As a Muslim, the man refused to pay for or participate in traditional rites to banish a spirit from the village. The HRCSL and other authorities worked to forestall further retaliatory actions by village leaders.