The Applicants say that even though the affected girls were allowed to return to
school, many have been unable to do so, owing to the stigma attached to
teenage pregnancies and the attendant economic hardship which has forced
parents and guardians alike to abandon provision of support for the victims.
The Applicants claim that the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the body
that monitors the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child, has criticised the Policy as discriminatory. The Applicants
added that, the Committee’s concluding observations on the third to fifth
periodic reports of Sierra Leone, expressed serious concern at what it termed as
the “discriminatory policy the Ministry of Education instituted in March 2015 of
barring ‘visibly pregnant girls from attending school”.
According to the Applicants, the Committee opined that such a policy is in clear
violation of Articles 2, 3, 4 and 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
that obligate State Parties to a practice of non-discrimination; ensuring the best
interests of the child and promoting the right to education of the child. The
Committee called on the Respondent State to immediately lift the
discriminatory ban on pregnant girls from attending mainstream schools and
that pregnant girls and adolescent mothers should be supported and assisted in
continuing their education in mainstream schools.
The Applicants attached statements of eight (8) witnesses and six (6) Exhibits;
Amnesty International Report titled “Shamed and Blamed; Pregnant Girls rights
at risk in Sierra Leone, Press Release from the Guardian Newspaper dated 11th
May 2015, Press Release from Amnesty International dated 8th November 2016,
Press Release from Voice of America News dated 13th April 2015, Certificate of
Registration for Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society (WAVES)
and Certificate of Registration for Child Welfare Society, Sierra Leone (CWS-SL)