On this page, you will find:
To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our Sierra Leone LGBTQI+ Resources page.
To find organisations providing legal or other types of assistance to refugees in Sierra Leone, visit our Sierra Leone Legal Assistance page.
COI Experts
Managing Partner, Chariot Eight: 51A MainMotor Road, Wilberforce, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Email: info@cheight.com or bchaytor@cheight.com
Chariot Eight law firm is a general corporate practice law firm providing a spectrum of legal services to national and international clients. Ms Chaytor can provide assistance to lawyers representing asylum seekers through confirming Sierra Leonean legal documents and by providing general legal information about Sierra Leone.
Professor of History at the University of Arizona
Email: benlaw@email.arizona.edu
Benjamin N. Lawrance is the former Conable Chair in International Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently a professor of history at the University of Arizona.He has conducted field research in West Africa since 1997 and published extensively about political and social conditions. He has served as an expert witness in the asylum cases for over 130 West Africans in the US, Europe and Canada which have involved human trafficking, citizenship, statelessness, female genital cutting, gender issues, gender identity, ethnic and religious violence, and witchcraft accusations.
Email: djh13@u.washington.edu
Dr Hoffman has conducted fieldwork in Sierra Leone and Liberia since 2000 on issues of youth mobilization during and after those countries’ recent wars. Dr Hoffman acted as an expert witness in the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2006. Dr Hoffman has published numerous works on the issues in Sierra Leone and Liberia including the book The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia (The Cultures and Practice of Violence).
Email: coi.knoerr@t-online.de
Dr Jacqueline Knörr, Head of Research at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Extraordinary Professor at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Saale, Germany. Professor Knörr was brought up in Ghana and Germany and has for many years conducted extensive field research in Sierra Leone und the Upper Guinea Coast of West Africa more generally, as well as in Indonesia. She has worked as a Lecturer, Senior Researcher, University Professor, Scientific Director, and Political Advisor. She has served as expert witness in about two hundred asylum cases, writing expert reports concerning FGC/M and other human rights issues.
Email: moore@law.unm.edu
Jennifer Moore is a Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico. Moore’s most recent publication is a monograph entitled Humanitarian Law in Action within Africa (Oxford University Press, 2012), in which she explores the various ways in which humanitarian and human rights law serve as tools of conflict resolution and transitional justice in countries emerging from protracted civil wars. The book includes case studies on civil war and post-conflict transition in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Burundi. She also co-authored (with Musalo & Boswell) the law school casebook, Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach (Carolina Academic Press, 4th Ed. 2011). Prior to joining the UNM law faculty in 1995, Jennifer Moore worked for UNHCR, as an associate protection officer in Conakry, Guinea and in Washington, D.C. During her time in Guinea in the 1990s, Professor Moore worked with refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone. She most recently visited Freetown and Northern Province, Sierra Leone in 2010. In 2002-2003, Moore was in Tanzania on a Fulbright Scholarship, where she taught international law at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Email: saabramowitz@gmail.com
Dr Sharon Abramowitz is a medical anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of humanitarian intervention, mental health, gender-based violence, health sector transitions, and post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia based in Boston, MA. As a topic and area expert, Dr. Abramowitz has contributed to over 100 written reports, articles, books, presentations, consultations, advisory meetings, and media statements in the United States, Canada, Denmark, France, Liberia, Senegal, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The expert has conducted extensive research on matters pertaining to health sector capacity in low-income countries, conflict and post-conflict issues, medical humanitarianism, trauma-related mental health, gender violence, and other political, sociocultural, economic, and structural matters. Particular social groups of interest include children, women, and low-income and vulnerable populations. During the West African Ebola response, Dr Abramowitz provided research and analysis to a range of organizations working in Liberia and Sierra Leone, including UNICEF, the WHO, and Save the Children.
Email: obaratom@gmail.com
Dr Bosire has conducted a one year fieldwork study on FGM/C in Sierra Leone and published extensively on Sierra Leone, including his 2013 book Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State: The Case of Bondo Secret Society. He holds a PhD in Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences and has spoken about FGM/C at several conferences.
Email: zoe.marks@ed.ac.uk
Dr Zoe Marks is Chancellor’s Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in the Centre of African Studies, and a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School in the Women and Public Policy Program. Her research focuses on gender, armed conflict, and post-conflict development in sub-Saharan Africa. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Sierra Leone (2008, 2009-10, and 2014) on issues relating to gender, sexual violence, civil war, and post-conflict development. Dr Marks has conducted over 200 interviews with men and women ex-combatants from the Sierra Leonean and Liberian civil wars, and continues to do primary research in urban, rural, and archive settings. She has also worked in local and international organizations in Ethiopia, France, Sierra Leone, and South Africa on women’s empowerment, HIV/AIDS and sexual health, and community-driven education and peacebuilding initiatives.
COI Resources
The following sections contain documents that can be consulted when looking for country of origin information.
‘The right to freedom of peaceful assembly continued to be restricted and the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers was under investigation. The right to freedom of expression for government critics and opponents was repressed. Several laws were adopted to advance women’s rights. While efforts were made to decongest prisons, there were allegations of torture in one detention centre. Levels of food insecurity worsened. Legal regulation of the mining sector was strengthened.’
Click here to see Freedom House’s COI Report of 2022 on Civil Liberties in Sierra Leone.
This report was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings
and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United
States Department of State
Sierra Leone Legal Assistance
Find organisations offering legal and other types of assistance to refugees in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone LGBTQI+ Resources
Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in Sierra Leone.
We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant experts, or you are aware of organisations and/or resources to include in our directories, please get in touch.
Last updated June 2023