Resume

Name: Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai

Gender Status: Male

Higher Education

No / Institution / Discipline / Accreditation / Status
2. / Sierra Leone Law School
(From 2005_ to 06 _) / Law / Practising Law Licence- Bachelor of Law (BL) / Awarded
3. / Central European University
(From 04 to 05_) / International Human Rights Law / Masters of Laws and Letters (LLM) / Awarded
5. / Fourah Bay College
University of Sierra Leone
(From 2000_ to 04_) / General Law / Bachelor of Laws and Letters (LLB) / Awarded
6. / Fourah Bay College
University of Sierra Leone
(From 1997_ to 2000 _) / English Language and Sociology / Bachelor of Arts (BA) / Awarded
EXPERIENCE
  1. LEGAL EXPERIENCE

National

Barrister and Solicitor

  • I am a trained and qualified barrister and solicitor at Law in the Republic of Sierra Leone. I practice law on human rights issues throughout the country providing legal aid to women and children. This also means handling criminal and civil law matters; it also involves challenging cases in the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, thus impact constitutional adjudication.
  • I am also the lawyer for Civil Society Organisations and Non-government Organisation when they come in conflict with the law.
  • Similarly, I provide legal aid to journalists who are charged under the obnoxious criminal and seditious libel laws.

Sub-Regional – West Africa (From 2005 to 2012)

  • I am also part of the West African Media Defenders Network that provides gratis legal service to media institutions in the West Africa Sub-region. The network comprises of lawyers from the sixteen West Africa States that are committed to the defence of journalists. The function of this group is to provide legal service for imprisoned lawyers; review media laws in various countries in the sub-region; research into media legal frameworks; provide advocacy and organised regional meetings to share best practices

Legal Drafting and Critique (From 2006_ to 2006 _)

  • I have also drafted legislation for Sierra Leone’s parliament and these includes the ‘freedom of information bill’, the matrimonial and sexual offences bill with two others, the civil libel bills.
  • Additionally, I have critique a number of legislation to ensure that fall in line with constitutional and international standards human rights, democratic and good governance standards
  • Also, I have simplified legislations for less legal minds to understand in the course of my advocacy work in civil society below.
  1. CIVIL SOCIETY/NGO EXPERIENCE

Management Experience

  • Since its inception in 2003, I am the founder and Executive Director of Society for Democratic Initiatives, Sierra Leone: This is a democracy institution that has charged itself with human rights education and advocacy, freedom of information. Advocacy, prison watch, rule of law and anti-corruption campaigns. Part of my role is to coordinate the various directions, working on the above issues and developing programs and strategies for the institution. Represent the organisation both at home and abroad. Manage the organizations’ finance together with the fiancé and other program directors. SDI has over one hundred thousand dollar budget for its various operations and programs.
  • Chairman of Sierra Leone Freedom of Information – a network of civil society organizations, governmental, media and academic organizations working on the promulgation of access to information law. This organisation also had over a hundred thousand grants since its inception and I have managed these grants satisfactorily.

(From April 2003_ to Dec 2005 _)

  • Chair and founder of the Civil Society Coalition working on the advocacy on the Non-governmental Organisation policy that has been passed by government. This is a coalition that works on defending civil society space (From May 2009_ to presently

Gender and Women’s Right Work

  • October – November 2010: Consultant with the UNFPA in Liberia to evaluate the Sexual and Gender Based Violence Crimes Unit (SGBV CU). The SGBV CU was set up eighteen months ago to prosecute sexual and gender based violence perpetuators. This lead to the establishment of ‘Criminal Court E’ and donors and the Peace Building Fund provided a lot funding for the setting up the crimes unit. My role is to evaluate the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of entire crimes unit. This consultancy is presently going in Monrovia, Liberia. This includes reviewing existing literature, undertaking sample survey, interviewing various stakeholders including the UNDP, Ministry of Justice, SGBV CU, and people on the street.
  • April – June 2009 Consultant: Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Sierra Leone, on a secondment from the UNFPA to develop a strategic plan and program development for the Resolution 1325 and organised series of activities, fund raised and ensure that Sierra Leone’s report on Security Council Resolution 1325 was submitted in time. Was part of the delegation to New York at the United Nations Session discussing country program.
  • Specialist for the development of National Gender Strategy for Sierra Leone based with the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs. Part of my role was to with the donors, including the United Nations bodies working on gender issues, government departments and agencies, Sierra Leone Police, civil society organizations and community based organization to develop the gender strategy and ensure that it’s a national documentFeb 2010 – December 2012
  • Legal Consultant: Ministry of social welfare, gender and children’s affairs to draft the two remaining gender bills – sexual offences and matrimonial causes bills- for the ministry. These two bills are now with the law officers for the enactment in the coming months.

Feb 2010 – December 2012

Procurement Monitoring and Contract Watch

  • Over the past one year, I have initiated and led a campaign for civil society oversight over government expenditure. One of the things the monitoring, reporting and publishing of public institutions procurement patterns and this led to the launching of the ‘Contract Watch’ Bulletin in July 2010 that exposed a lot of malpractices in public expenditure. This unique venture does desk review of various institutional procurement procedures, laws and literature; and undertakes field research to investigate the practice procurement process.

(From April 2009 _ to Present_) Contract Monitoring Coalition, Sierra Leone. CountryConvener

  • I am also the Chairman of the Procurement Monitoring Coalition set up during a World Bank Regional Conference in Nairobi, Kenya which intends to building coalition on public contracts and government’s expenditure.
  • (From April 2009 _ to Present) Contract Monitoring Coalition, Sierra Leone. Country Convener

Coalition building

  • Build the Freedom of information coalition that is responsible for the networking activities of the promulgation of the access to information bill. I also went on to Chair the Freedom of Information Coalition. (From 2003_ to present_)

Defending civil society

  • The Defending Civil Society project is geared towards protecting civil society against unwarranted state interference. It includes assessing the legal and practical framework of civil society organisations – NGOS, CSOS, CBOs, trade unions, media et al- and doing advocacy to enlightened civil society organisations about the international human rights standards protecting civil society and how government should relate with civil society. (From 2009_ to Present_)
  • The process including research and documentation, reviews of policy, organisation and facilitation of workshops, conferences and events at national and international level.

Truth Commission

  • In 2003, worked with the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission as legal adviser to the Commissioner on sexual and gender based violence issues.. Part of my duties were to advised the commission on all matters including legal implications of it activities, advising on international human rights and national laws governing women children, open and close testimonies on sensitive issues like children and sexual abuses cases, witness protection and amicable settlement of disputes cases that occurred during the war.
  • 2006 consulted with the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a legal consultant performing almost the same function as stated above. I also sat at testimonies and advised on using alternative methods of disputes resolution in an amicable way.
  • 2009, have advised the process in the setting up of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court ideas in Kenya. As a consultant, part of my assessment and advised is published by the International Commission of Jurists titled “Lessons for Kenya in Sierra Leone's Twin Transitional Approach: The Special Court and Truth Commission, a chapter in the book, “Addressing Impunity and Options for Justice in Kenya: Mechanisms, Issues and Debates”
  1. CONSULTANCIES EXPERIENCE
  • World Bank: Reviewing media Law that hinder free flow of information and communication in post-war Sierra Leone in 2006. See title of report under reports
  • World Bank: Analysis of the Civil Society Landscape in Sierra Leone in 2006. See title of report under reports
  • Media Foundation for West Africa, Accra, Ghana: Consultancy to review the laws, policies and practices hindering freedom of Expression in Sierra Leone in 2009. See title of report under reports
  • Media Foundation for West Africa: Laws and Practice Hindering Freedom of Information in Sierra Leone in 2009. See title of report under reports Consultant-
  • International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law- Monitoring the Civil society space reviews the Sierra Leone NGO policy and civil society space in Sierra Leone 2009. See title of report under reportsconsultant:
  1. FELLOWSHIPS EXPERIENCE
  • 2009 – Reagan-Fascal Democracy Fellow at the Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, in Washington DC. Researching on Access to Information and its relationship to democracy, governance and resource management.Sally Blair,
  • 2007 – Open Society Justice Initiative Fellow to do a postgraduate masters program in International Human Rights Law and returned to Sierra Leone to work for a year with full benefit from the fellowship.
  • 2006- Open Society Justice Initiative Fellowship to study comparative media law and policy advocacy at the Centre for Socio-legal Studies, University of Oxford
  1. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • Toying or Being Serious About Democratic Governance This Time Round? A Critical Appriasal of the African Charter on Democracy, Election, and Governance, unpublished yet, 2009
  • Lessons for Kenya in Sierra Leone's Twin Transitional Approach: The Special Court and Truth Commission, a chapter in the book, “Addressing Impunity and Options for Justice in Kenya: Mechanisms, Issues and Debates
  • Deviating from Customs of International Law: The African Union Charter Authorizes the “Responsibility to Protect” and Damned the UN!
  • Assessing the Laws and Practices of Access to Information Law in Africa, Masters Thesis, Central European University, 2007
  • Freedom of Information As Tool for Justice Sector Reforms, Dissertation, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, 2006
  • African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance: A Case for Ratification in Sierra Leone Concord Times, Oct 2009
  • Exposing the Culture of Secrecy: Laws Enhancing and Inhibiting Access to Information Practice Sierra Leone. A Report Collating and Analyzing Laws and Policies that have relations with freedom of information. A Report for Ford Foundation, in print.
  • Why NGOs Should be Aware of the NGO Policy, A Handbook on Defending Civil Society in Sierra Leone September 2009
  • Defending Civil Society: Report on Laws and Regulations Governing Civil Society Organizations in Sierra Leone. A Report for the World Movement for Democracy.

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