Sierra Leone
Practice Relating to Rule 89. Violence to Life
Sierra Leone’s Instructor Manual (2007) states:
[T]here are certain human rights that can never be suspended no matter the situation. These are referred to as
hard-core rights and they include … the right to life …
Hard core rights are protected under the LoAC as well.
[emphasis in original]
Sierra Leone’s Constitution (1991) states:
16. Protection of right to life.
(1) No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally except in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the laws of Sierra Leone, of which he has been convicted.
(2) Without prejudice to any liability for a contravention of any other law with respect to the use of force in such cases as are hereinafter mentioned, a person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life in contravention of this section if he dies as a result of the use of force to such extent as is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances of the case, that is to say –
a. for the defence of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of property; or
b. in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; or
c. for the purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny; or
d. in order to prevent the commission by that person of a criminal offence; or
e. if he dies as a result of a lawful act of war.
Sierra Leone’s Geneva Conventions Act (2012) states:
2. Grave breaches of the [1949 Geneva] Conventions and the [1977] First [Additional] Protocol.
(1) A person of whatever nationality commits an offence if that person, whether within or outside Sierra Leone[,] commits, aids, abets or procures any other person to commit a grave breach specified in –
(a) article 50 of the First Geneva Convention [on, inter alia, the grave breach of wilful killing];
(b) article 51 of the Second Geneva Convention [on, inter alia, the grave breach of wilful killing];
(c) article 130 of the Third Geneva Convention [on, inter alia, the grave breach of wilful killing];
(d) article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention [on,
inter alia, the grave breach of wilful killing].