[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 548 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 548
Encouraging the Government of Sierra Leone to abide by their promise to
a peaceful and credible electoral process.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 23, 2023
Mr. Allred (for himself and Ms. Kamlager-Dove) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Encouraging the Government of Sierra Leone to abide by their promise to
a peaceful and credible electoral process.
Whereas Sierra Leone held four successful elections, including two transfers of
power to the opposition since 2002, following the end of a decade-long
civil war that claimed more than 50,000 lives and countless casualties;
Whereas the people of Sierra Leone will return to the polls in 2023 for the
country's fifth general election, which will include a Presidential,
parliamentary, and local council races;
Whereas the upcoming elections will take place amid the country facing economic
challenges and rising inflation;
Whereas the African Development Bank (AfDB) reported Sierra Leone's inflation
rose to 26.1 percent in 2022 from 11.9 percent in 2021, driven by food
and fuel inflation, and depreciation of the leone as a function of
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas Sierra Leone has a long history of politicization along ethnic lines
with ethnopolitical cleavages identified in electoral results;
Whereas the Afrobarometer reported a noticeable decline in welcoming attitudes
toward people of different ethnicities and political affiliations over
the last two years;
Whereas, in 2020, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) found
that Sierra Leone has been experiencing a slow increase in political
violence as early as 2014, peaking around the 2018 elections and
remaining at high levels since;
Whereas the country's police force has been implicated in the excessive use of
force, notably during an August 2022 protest in which more than 20
protesters and several officers were killed in Freetown;
Whereas, since 2018, the International Republic Institute reported trust in the
Sierra Leone's National Electoral Commission (NEC) has fallen by 49
percent with only 18 percent of Sierra Leoneans polled identifying they
trust the NEC ``a great deal'';
Whereas independent journalists, media outlets, and press freedom advocates
expressed their ongoing concerns over political elites' use of libel and
sedition laws to subvert reporting on elections and high-level
corruption;
Whereas women's participation in politics, including representation in
Parliament, key appointments as ministers or other senior administrative
positions in the government, remains at unequal levels and ``a big
issue'', according to the country's Ministry of Gender and Children
Affairs;
Whereas women who participate politically in the country report ``suffocating
intimidation'' by the country's security forces, including through
arbitrary arrests and other forms of intimidation by police presence;
Whereas despite upticks in political and social challenges, the Global Peace
Index still rates the country as the fifth-most peaceful country in
Africa and 50th in the world as of 2022;
Whereas Afrobarometer reported that among 30 African countries regularly
surveyed since 2011, Sierra Leone is the only country where support for
democratic elections increased significantly by 11 percentage points
over the recent decade;
Whereas, in February 2023, Sierra Leone signed into law the Gender Equality and
Women's Empowerment Act (GEWE), a historic and monumental bill that
establishes a 30-percent quota for women's participation in government
for both appointed administrative positions, ambassador roles, and
elected positions in Parliament and local council seats;
Whereas the United States and Sierra Leone share a deep and entwined
relationship with thousands of Sierra Leoneans and their descendants
residing in the United States today;
Whereas the United States and Sierra Leone are linked by a complex history
stemming from the Atlantic slave trade in which large numbers of African
slaves from present-day Sierra Leone were sent to the then-colonies of
Georgia and South Carolina;
Whereas many descendants of former slaves in the United States, known as the
Gullah, still reside in the same region of the former southeastern
colonies that were able to preserve much of their Sierra Leonean
cultural heritage such as a dialect of creole similar to Sierra Leone
Krio, and other customs;
Whereas Sierra Leone is a recipient of significant United States foreign
assistance to improve the lives of Sierra Leoneans through strategic
investments in democracy and governance, health service delivery, and
economic growth; and
Whereas the United States underscored its commitment to expanding and deepening
its partnership with African countries and working to bolster democracy
and strengthen electoral processes during the 2021 Summit for Democracy
and the 2022 United States-Africa Leaders Summit: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) reaffirms its long standing commitment to deepen
relations between the people and the Governments of the United
States and Sierra Leone;
(2) supports the continued efforts of the people, civil
society, and members of the diaspora of Sierra Leone in their
undeniable rights to free, fair, credible, and transparent
elections;
(3) urges all parties to pursue electoral petitions through
appropriate channels in an impartial, efficient, and timely
manner;
(4) strongly encourages all parties to monitor and mitigate
the use of inflammatory rhetoric that could incentivize
political violence and contribute to greater ethnopolitical
rifts;
(5) calls on the Government of Sierra Leone to uphold its
commitments to transparency, accountability, and good
governance, including by--
(A) resolving any potential administrative hurdles
to effectively allow elections to take place in a
timely fashion;
(B) implementing necessary mechanisms to monitor
and curb dissemination of misinformation and mitigate
inflammatory rhetoric; and
(C) ensuring that statutes established by the
Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act (GEWE) are
adhered to; and
(6) encourages the United States Government to continue
necessary engagements with the Government of Sierra Leone,
underscoring the need to uphold free and fair elections in
accordance with the country's constitution.
<all>