Why you should support the Community Advisory Bureau in your Ward

Why you should support the Community Advisory Bureau in your Ward

The Legal Aid Board opened four Community Advisory Bureaus (CAB) in Wellington and Calaba Town on 28 February 2017. This is the second set of Bureaus, the first being the three in the Lumley and Wilkinson Road area in the West of the capital Freetown.  The latest addition brings to seven the total number of Bureaus in the country supervised by the Board. This will continue in the coming weeks and months.

The Bureaus are non-political and non-profit. They are run by volunteers drawn from the Ward and reflect the shades of opinion therein.  The CAB is an initiative of the Board which was borne in the second half of 2015 following consultations with civil society groups and partners in the justice sector on expanding access to justice.

The consultations took place against the backdrop of constraints faced by majority of the people in accessing justice.  There is a strong feeling among partners that access to justice is expensive, complex and fraught with chronic delays. Ignorance about the legal system has not been helpful. In addition, the formal court is perceived as intimidating because proceedings are not conducted in the local language and the judgments rarely take into account the culture and tradition of the people.  Also, the formal courts are far removed from remote communities as a result their impact is hardly felt by these people.

For these reasons and several others, many aggrieved people take solace in committing their grievances to divine intervention rather than seek redress in the courts, be it in the formal or informal including those outside the Local Court Act 2011.

These consultations culminated in a stakeholders’ workshop in June 2016 at the Atlantic Hall of the National Stadium Hostels to educate and discuss ideas about the Bureaus. The workshop was climaxed with the formation of a Community Advisory Bureau Working Committee to work with the Board’s consultant to develop the bye-laws for the Bureau.

This was followed by another workshop in July 2016 in which the Community Advisory Bureau Working Committee adopted the Bye-Laws. In addition to the Working Committee, the Workshop attracted twelve Tribal Headmen from the Western Area, Councilors from the Western Area Urban and Rural District Councils, representatives of the Sierra Leone Police, the Sierra Leone Correctional Service, National Youth Commission and civil society groups.

This paved the way for community level engagements to kick-start the setting up of the Bureaus. The Outreach Section of the Board has been organizing series of sensitization meetings and consultations with key actors in Wards in the Western Area.

This resulted in securing office spaces and the consequent opening of seven Bureaus in Freetown so far. These meetings and consultations will continue until the Bureaus are established in all the 394 Wards in the country.

The Bureaus are the first port of call for members of the community who have law and order issues or minor disputes. One of the core functions of the Bureau is to conduct Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. They mediate civil cases – matters of a non-criminal nature. This includes cases of debts, maintenance, land issues, landlord and tenant, Employer and Employee, family, marital and community level problems.

The Bureaus will refer cases which do not fall within their remit – criminal and civil cases - to the relevant national institutions. Cases of a criminal nature will be referred to the police and the courts. Others will be referred to the Local Courts, Ministries of Lands, Labour and Social Welfare, Ombudsman and the Legal Aid Board.

It is important to note that the decisions of the Bureaus are legally enforceable. This means should any of the parties to the mediation decide not to abide by the settlement reached and resort to courts, the Board will make available to the Courts the undertaking signed by both parties.

Apart from the ADR, the Bureaus undertake legal education through community outreach events on national laws, Rule of Law, human rights, mandate of the Legal Aid Board, social reintegration of ex-convicts, civic education and advocacy.

Also, the Bureaus have an Employment Desk and an Information Board. The former provides information on employment opportunities in and outside the Ward. They will provide internship placement for young people in the community to assist with providing the experience they need to compete in the job market.

The Bureaus will assist with implementing Legal Aid Board projects in their respective Wards. For instance, they will be an integral part of the Board’s campaign to ensure a violent-free election. This is part of a proactive strategy to prevent violence rather than provide legal assistance to indigents who perpetrate violence.

The Board has been involved with the establishment of the seven Bureaus every step of the way. It funded the training of the volunteers which marks the final stage in operationalizing the Bureau.

As and when funds are available, the Board will support the Bureaus by providing additional training including Paralegal work and Mediation. This will build their capacity in mediation, issues of law and advocacy.

You too can support the Bureau in your Ward. So far, the support of residents of the various Wards has been reassuring so far. For instance, the Councilors in six of the seven Wards were pivotal in securing office space for the Bureaus. In the case of Ward 346 in Calaba, Executive Director of the Lady Ellen Women’s Aid Foundation, Mohamed Jalloh provided space for the Bureau.

This is a positive step towards ownership and making the Bureaus sustainable. But this is far from being enough. Full sustainability can be achieved if members of the Ward take complete ownership of the Bureau by providing them the necessary support and holding them to account.

The assistance can be in the form of things as basic as furniture, money to cover running cost including fare and credit for communication and electricity, stationery for General Referral and Maintenance Agreement Forms and Invitation Letters, chair rental and allowance to focal person who will oversee the day to day running of the Bureau and volunteers.

Already, the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles has been sounding the alarm bell since she was confronted by a volunteer on the issue of running cost for the Bureau during the training in Calaba Town.  The volunteer wanted to know from Ms. Carlton-Hanciles where money covering  running  cost will come from.

‘Assuming, I need say Le 5,000 to deliver an invitation letter, who will provide the money since the Bureau’s kitty is empty?’ he said.  Ms. Carlton-Hanciles had this to say by way of response: ‘The Bureau is work in progress, we need to give it time.’

Ms. Carlton-Hanciles was quick to point out that the Bureaus are community owned and lead. ‘We have done our bit to assist you in setting them up and will continue to provide technical and other support as a when resources are available,’ she said. ‘But we have to be very clear in terms of ownership, you own the Bureau and not the Legal Aid Board.’

By: Joseph Dumbuya