Amnesty Urges Government…Time is Off To Stop Pregnant Girls

As the band on pregnant girls to attend school continues, Amnesty International has urged the government to end the band.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday Tuesday 7^th November 2016  at the New Brookfield Hotel, Alioune Tine, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa said time is off to stop and end pregnant girls from attending school and to step up to protect young school girls.  

 He said “The prohibition on visibly pregnant girls attending mainstream schools and taking exams is hopelessly misguided, and is doing nothing to address the root causes of Sierra Leone’s high teenage pregnancy rate, which surged during the devastating Ebola crisis, and remain high despite this ban”

He spoke about some of the moved they have made such as meeting of Parliamentarians, Education Ministry and the justice minister, among others.

Solomon Sogbandi is Amnesty Executive Director Sierra Leone said there are lot of issues around religion and emotion and that of human right and tradition. According to him the reason they think government should lift the ban on pregnant girls to attend school was that when a girl is better educated they stand a chance to better life and change society.

According to him banding girls to enter school during pregnancy is a violation of their right to education.

“Let’s us don’t attribute the issue of violation to divine intervention. The violation has lot of implication to society.”

He stressed that government should see reason and they don’t see reason about the band.

“What is the evidence? Pregnancy is not a disease,”

 Sabrina Mahtani Research West Africa said under strict embargo until 10.01 am GMT on 8 November 2016 Sierra Leone: Continued pregnancy ban in schools and failure to protect rights is threatening teenage girls’ futures.

She said Sierra Leone must lift a deeply discriminatory ban on visibly pregnant girls attending school and taking exams, which continues to entrench  gender inequality in the country and puts thousands of teenage girls’ futures at task, Amnesty International said today, a year on from its report on the issue.

“Rather than humiliating and excluding teenage girls, Sierra Leone’s authorities should focus on increasing sexual and reproductive  health information in schools, and protecting girls from sexual violence and abusive relationships. Unless these issues are addressed the cycle of unwanted early pregnancy will continue for generations to come.”

The prohibition was declared official government policy in April 2015, shortly before schools reopened following the Ebola crisis. More than a year and a half later Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the ban is still in place, despite national and International criticism.

She said Amnesty International spoke to 68 girls aged between 15 and 20 years who were either pregnant or had given birth recently in the Western Urban and Western Rural areas of Sierra Leone. They also spoke to 26 national and International civil society organizations , actors, teachers and government officials in order to assess the impact of the ban.

According to her, the majority of girls interviewed had become pregnant during the Ebola outbreak, when there was an increase in teenage pregnancy, accompanied by a spike in sexual violence. “The negative economic impact of the Ebola crisis led to an increase in exploitative and abusive relationships.”

She stated further that during their research most girls said the policy had left them feeling abandoned and discouraged at not being able to go to school. They described their frustration at being unable to sit exams they had studied hard for.