Sierra Leone Judiciary Comms Unit: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 19 October 2021:
The World Justice Project Rule of Law 2021 Index has rated the Judiciary of Sierra Leone high ahead of thirty-one (31) countries in the world during their global assessment amidst the COVID19 outbreak.
In a year dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Rule of Law Index, ranked Sierra Leone 108 (Global Ranking) with 0.44 overall score ahead of Cameroon, Turkey, Bolivia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Liberia and Guinea among host of other countries in the world in terms of rankings and progress on the Rule of Law.
The World Justice Project: Rule of Law Index 2021 was launched on Thursday, 14th October, 2021 in Washington DC, United States of America and relies on more than138,000 household surveys and 4,200 legal practitioner and expert surveys to measure how the Rule of Law is experienced and perceived worldwide.
Sierra Leone was evaluated based on the Universal Principles of the Rule of Law including Accountability, Just Law, Open Government and Accessible and Impartial Justice.
“We have built an accountable and more transparent Judiciary with daily updates on all our activities including Court proceedings and delivery of Judgments,” said Hon. Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards, adding that, “this could be one of the key reasons why we were evaluated in 2020 for the first time with impressive gains ahead of many countries. The Index looked at the clarity of our Laws, accessible, fair and expedited justice system and we are moving in this direction with the deployment of Resident Magistrates in all Districts and the deployment of Resident High Court Judges in places where there weren’t sitting Judges, all of these developments are unprecedented.”
The World Justice Project: Rule of Law Index 2021 states that the ‘Rule of Law’ has deteriorated with 84.7% of the world’s population (6.5 billion people) live in a country where Rule of Law is weakening with greatest decline in Timeliness of Justice and Absence of Discrimination especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. The declines were widespread and seen in all corners of the world.
The World Justice Project is an independent, multidisciplinary organization working to create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the Rule of Law worldwide.
The Index measures adherence to the rule of law by looking at policy outcomes, such as whether people have access to courts or whether crime is effectively controlled.
The moment I read that Chief Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards is a “Born Again Christian” I concluded that he is a man of High Integrity who fears only his creator of Heaven and Earth. Thanks to President Bio for giving him the independence to function as the Arm of government which is responsible for the Rule of Law. Sierra Leone will continue to RISE AGAIN based on the fact that even our parliament has recently abolished the Criminal Libel Law and the Death Penalty. This eventually will make the job easier for the judiciary to implement justice in our country. Expanding the justice system across the country will reduce lawlessness and enhance peace , and thankfully we are now rated as one of the most peaceful country in Africa. “Equal Rights and Justice” are the recipes for peace and development.
May the Almighty continue to bless our Chief Justice for the quantum leap that our nation has taken around the world within 3 years .