By Saio Marrah
The Judiciary of Sierra Leone has welcomed the country’s impressive ratings as contained in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) 2021 scoreboard that looked at control of corruption, civil liberties or political rights, rule of law and others.
In a press release dated 11 November 2021 the judiciary linked the ratings to the reforms in the sector in recent times that included deploying of judges and magistrates in regions and all districts and conducting of effective and regular High Court Criminal Sessions geared towards decongesting correctional centres.
It said the judiciary has also established specialized courts like the Anti-Corruption Court, Social Security Court, Sexual Offences Model Court and recently the Small Claims Court and the conducting of regular, speedy and fair hearings from Magistrate to Supreme Court.
The judiciary also noted development s such as uploading of rulings in their website, revised and updated court’s fee consistent with accessibility and expeditious justice delivery, and having established for the first time a virtual court to digitalize the judiciary.
According to the judiciary, the MCC rates the country with 63 percent passes in the rule of law and 92 percent rating in both civil and political rights, due to those gains made.
Reacting to the MCC report, Chief Justice Babatunde Edwards reportedly stated: “This is welcoming not only for us as a judiciary but as a nation to pass 13 out of 20 indicators. It shows that the judiciary is an independent arbiter of disputes between parties and these disputes are decided on the basis of the relevant law, which includes the constitution of Sierra Leone.”
He also added that the judiciary will continue to be apolitical in the administration of justice including the upholding of the rule of law which has been demonstrated in the MCC report.
The press release also noted that the MCC’s expert assessments looked at the extent to which the public has confidence in and abides by the rule of law. The incident and impact of violence and non-violent crime, the effectiveness, independence and predictability of the judiciary, the protection of property rights and the enforceability of the judiciary, were all taken into consideration by MCC, according to the judiciary.
The MCC is an independent United States government agency working to reduce global poverty and uses an analytically- rigorous methodology and objective, high quality data in their assessment and ratings.
Copyright © Politico Online 15/11/21
