Sierra Leone News:Health and education should be fundamental rights – Lawyer Gibril Kamara

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According to Gibril Kamara, a legal practitioner and member of the State Policy and Human Rights Subcommittee in the on-going constitutional review process, “health and education should be entrenched into the constitution as a fundamental human right for citizens of this country”. Lawyer Gibril Kamara last week told a cross section of civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and stakeholders in the health sector that not only the Free Health-Care Initiative (FHCI) should be included but health in general for every Sierra Leonean to be included into the constitution as a means to continue to provide efficient and effective health care delivery services. In an interview with Awoko, Lawyer Kamara said the state policy and human rights subcommittee is tasked to look at Chapters 2 and 3 of the 1991 Constitution with an additional mandate to look into citizenship as a concept, and in line with their responsibilities, the committee thought it fit to move health and education from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3 to be fundamental human rights. He said Chapter 2 of the constitution states the fundamental rights of the person to which every citizen is entitled to irrespective of age, sex, colour, race, religion, region and inability and these rights, he maintained, include right to life, freedom of movement, association and right to the protection of the law without any discrimination. Because of the importance of health and education and with all the public consultations the committee had with people, Kamara noted that health was one of the principal issues discussed and people think that health and education should be fundamental right, therefore it should be moved from Chapter 2 to 3. “People appreciate the free health care initiative, so it is important for the government to do more in terms of health issues in the country and for it to be made into fundamental law, thereby ensuring that it becomes a universal basic facility that everybody enjoys that will enable society live healthy, noting that with a healthy society comes development. He explained that Chapter Two deals with state policy that guides the government but unfortunately under section 14 of Chapter 2 is not justiciable as the end part of the chapter states that if government does not provide these facilities and rights you cannot take the government to court. “Based on public perception, the committee is “suggesting that the issue of health and education move from chapter two to chapter three, meaning that health and education should be a fundamental right so that it can have more efficacy on the law and government can be answerable to the people in providing these facilities,” lawyer Kamara explained. He further states that if a citizen is denied of a medical service, that person should have the right to question government or the service provider through the court of law because it is a right entitled to everyone. However, he said during their preliminary discussion with the people, the committee found out that people are cautious into bringing health and education into chapter 3 law because these projects are financial intensive projects which can commit any government, therefore he advised that the government should devise means where people can contribute to the scheme to make it sustainable. “We need subsequent legislation that act as secondary laws that manages these fundamental rights and also government should initiate a health tax system where citizens will pay to earn them the right to use these facilities as provided. Education and health are important factors in every country’s development and therefore it must be made paramount into the constitution to ensure every citizen enjoys them as their fundamental right, he maintained. By Mariam Sulaiman Bah Wednesday November 04, 2015

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