The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRC-SL) has called on the government to fulfill its obligations to Sierra Leoneans by submitting outstanding international treaty reports without further delay.

While presenting the State of Human Rights Report 2011 to the media last Friday, HRC-SL Commissioner, Rev. Moses Khanu, stated that the country still has several treaty body reports including the ones to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to submit.

He noted his commission's willingness to help the government to prepare these reports and send them to relevant bodies.

"Sierra Leone has several outstanding treaty reports to submit and we at HRC-SL are calling on the government to fulfill its obligations by submitting these reports. We pledge our full support to assist the government in this regard," he said.

Rev. Khanu assured the government and the citizenry that the commission is committed to work to protect and promote human rights in the country and also ready to work with stakeholders towards a peaceful, free and fair November 17 elections.

When contacted by Concord Times, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Sheka Tarawalie, acknowledged that Sierra Leone has outstanding reports to submit to treaty bodies but assured that the government will work with the HRC-SL to prepare and send these reports.

"We know we have outstanding reports to submit. We will work with the Human Rights Commission to try and submit them. But of course it is a process and it is something that we will not do in a rush," he said.