AYV News, June 17, 2025
A total of 80 staff, including paralegals, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) officials and defense counsels drawn from the Board’s twenty-three offices around the country have benefitted from a one-day refresher capacity building workshop organised by the Legal Aid Board with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – Sierra Leone.
The workshop took place at the Police Wives Hall, at Kingtom, in Freetown and was geared towards capacitating participants on Paralegals’ Roles and Case Management; Child Rights and Safeguards; Community Engagement and Legal Literacy; Legal and Policy Framework and Child-Friendly Legal Aid Services.
Speaking during the opening session, the Executive Director of the Board, Ms Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, highlighted the importance of the training, which she said, among others, will help to sharpen the knowledge of staff on how to handle child-related issues.
She added that children are not supposed to be in the jails, noting that as a Board, “we have a big obligation in protecting their rights whenever they are in contact with the law”.
She urged staff to always ensure that the rights of children are protected when dealing with their matters. She thanked UNICEF for its continued support to the Board.
Speaking on child’s rights and safeguarding, the facilitator, Counsel Ibrahim Samba, started by defining who is a child; rights of a child as stipulated in Part III of the Child Rights Act 2007 which include right to life, food, shelter, education, parental duty and property, etc. Counsel Samba also spoke on what constitutessafeguarding, noting that safeguarding simply means to protect. He said one way of safeguarding children is by creating institutions such as the Legal Aid Board that stands for their rights and also by awareness raising, etc.
He urged the participants to continue to be child protection ambassadors, adding that safeguarding children is not a one-manshow.
In the area of Child-Friendly Legal Aid Services, the facilitator, Counsel Morrison Karimu, explained how child-friendly legal aid services are done, such as handling child matters in a language and manner that could be understood and friendly to the child.
