National Sowie Council Rejects Child Rights Bill …Says It Is Recolonization

The National Sowie Council in Sierra Leone has rejected the Child Rights Bill and called on other institutions to support their position.
This position was made known by the Sowie Council in their press release dated Thursday 24th October 2024, noting that the bill is Recolonization, and that they will not let it happen.
“This Press Release/Statement is a call to all true and proud Bondo and Sande members to make your voices heard loud and clear to your sowies, your village and town chiefs, your section chiefs and especially your Paramount Chiefs seated in the Well of Parliament, and your MPs representing your district in Sierra Leone,” the Council stated.
The Council furthered that it is time to say a clear NO to the anti-Bondo Bill that the Government is masquerading as a Child Rights Bill in the House of Parliament.
The Council maintained that the purported Child Rights Bill introduced to Parliament last week Tuesday is an anti-Bondo Bill for the following reasons:
The Child Rights Bill is erroneously represented as sanctioned by the National Sowie Council and Council of Paramount Chiefs.
The Child Rights Bill undermines the authority and sovereignty of Bondo and Sande Society.
The Child Rights Bill legalizes western surveillance of the lives and bodies of Sierra Leone women and girls.
The Child Rights Bill is unconstitutional and a breach of International Human Rights Conventions.
“We condemn in the strongest terms that Honorable Mahoi would have the audacity to bring to the Well of Parliament in the presence of our Paramount Chiefs, both male and female, proposed legislation under the guise of protecting children’s rights that refers to so-called female genital cutting and so-called harmful practices,” National Sowie Council stated.
That an attempt to yet again slide in a Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting ban in Sierra Leone, by Hon. Mahoi and other anti-Bondo Cabinet Ministers have demonstrated the unmitigated temerity to include a legally mandated role to UNICEF in this Child Rights Bill to enable UNICEF to secretly monitor and police Bondo and Sande women in villages and local communities.
That the internationally prohibited UN interference in the local governance and existing traditional structures in the villages is designed to undermine the authority of Bondo and Sande women in their local communities.
The inclusion of Section 25 and other dubious provisions in the Child Rights Bill is part of the End FGM by 2030 agenda that President Maada Bio’s Cabinet Ministers under the leadership of Chief Minister Dr. David Sengeh and Information Minister Chernor Bah have signed on to with the promise of millions of dollars from western donors and UN Agencies.