According to Abdulai Manaff Kemokai, the Executive Director of Defense for Children International (DCI), approximately 3,000 children come into conflict with the law in Sierra Leone each year.

The DCI director said this at a press conference organized by the Child Rights Coalition, where he supported the introduction of the Child Rights Act.

According to Manaff, this number is very alarming and as a country we should try to reduce it by introducing the Child Rights Act, which was published a few months ago.

According to DCI Boss, diversion is one way to limit children’s time in police stations and courtrooms because it provides another option to deal with children in conflict with the law, rather than going to the police station or courtroom.

Even with the police, he said the facilities are not there and are not updated to keep children. In most cases, they are placed in the cells of adult criminals, where they have the opportunity to learn many strange things in the shortest possible time.

He said the Child Rights Act 2007 did not provide for children in conflict with the law, but an adjacent bill would make the necessary change if Parliament approved what was missing from the 2007 document.

In this regard, he called on the legislators to implement the current bill so that children in conflict with the law are treated better, instead of taking them to the police station or court, which have not done so. was fruitful of children.