Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex, Sophie Rhy-Jones during on Wednesday 22nd January, 2020 paid a courtesy call on Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh at his Tower Hill office, Freetown.

Her talk with the Vice President centered on women’s education, health and meaningful participation in politics, security and justice. She spoke about the need to support survivors of sexual violence and to call for an end to sexual and gender-based violence whilst reaffirming the strong bilateral relationship UK and Sierra Leone share.

In his response, the VP mentioned the efforts of the country to build a human rights culture over the years through undertaking policy reforms and building new institutions such as the national commission for human rights. He also reiterated the present government commitment to build on those gains and break new grounds particularly in the areas of promoting women issues and pushing for concrete actions with regards to protection issues and political participation. He cited particularly the presidential initiative on rape and sexual violence and the campaign of the First Lady.

Overall the VP assured Her Royal Highness of government’s continued commitment to build on the gains made so far highlighting that the leadership role of the president and the First Lady to promote gender issues is yielding positive dividends in the country.