Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008

This chapter of a 2008 country review examines Sierra Leone's engagement with regional and international legal instruments. It details the process of ratification and domestication, identifies significant delays in the ratification process, lists numerous conventions yet to be ratified, and attributes these failures to institutional inertia within the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice.

• Sierra Leone has experienced significant time gaps between the signing and ratification of regional instruments. For instance, the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa was signed on 10 September 1969 but not ratified until 28 December 1987, a gap of 17 years. A similar delay of approximately 10 years occurred with the African Charter on the Right and Welfare of the Child.
• Despite its history of a decade-long rebel war and its role as a settlement for repatriated slaves, Sierra Leone has failed to ratify several critical instruments, including the Slavery Convention, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitation to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
• The failure to ratify various international conventions and protocols is partly attributed to 'institutional inertia' within the Sierra Leonean Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.
• The report recommends that Sierra Leone prioritize the domestication of ratified conventions and protocols into local law. Domestication is necessary to allow the country to 'prescribe and impose penalties' when the provisions of these instruments are infringed.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2009). Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008. https://issafrica.org/01-may-2009-monograph-no-160-sierra-leone.-a-country-review-of-crime-and-criminal-justice-2008-african-human-security-initiative/chapter-9-adherence-to-regional-and-international-instruments

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008. 2009. https://issafrica.org/01-may-2009-monograph-no-160-sierra-leone.-a-country-review-of-crime-and-criminal-justice-2008-african-human-security-initiative/chapter-9-adherence-to-regional-and-international-instruments.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008 |date=May 2009 |url=https://issafrica.org/01-may-2009-monograph-no-160-sierra-leone.-a-country-review-of-crime-and-criminal-justice-2008-african-human-security-initiative/chapter-9-adherence-to-regional-and-international-instruments |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2009sierra, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2009}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.org/01-may-2009-monograph-no-160-sierra-leone.-a-country-review-of-crime-and-criminal-justice-2008-african-human-security-initiative/chapter-9-adherence-to-regional-and-international-instruments}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }