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• Introduction: A brief global history of the emergence, evolution, development and proliferation of freedom of information : principles definitive of scope and substance
• Myths surrounding freedom of information laws
• How FOI aids womens empowerment and redcues gender and sexual based violence
• Comparative analysis of freedom of information laws in Sierra Leone and Liberia
• Sierra Leone's resource curse : how the abuse of diamonds, politics and power collapsed a nation
• War, business as usual : the global scramble for Sierra Leone's natural resources
• Diamonds, war, poverty and underdevelopment : a multidimensional perspective on the global diamond industry and its need for reform
• The place of FOT in the second republic
• Localising transparency and accountability : access to information and citizen engagement under the Local Government Act 2004
• The effect of the EITI process on transparency and accountability in Sierra Leone's extractive industry
• Conclusion: Breaking free of the bog : the need for a novel impetus in the implementation of the RTAI Act 2013

This book argues that Sierra Leone's ten-year civil conflict demonstrates the criticality of freedom of information (FOI) as a facet of good governance where corruption thrives, spanning both public and private sectors, if Sierra Leone's continued security and stability are to be ensured. It argues that it was the absence of an anti-corruption tool like FOI and its attendants, transparency, and accountability, in governance generally, and in the area of the extractive industry in particular, that lead to other social phenomena which directly sparked the war. It proffers that for the continued consolidation of peace, security, stability and development in Sierra Leone, transparency and accountability must be ensured by protecting and implementing the demand driven anti-graft FOI. Straddling the disciplines of law, political science, public policy, and history, the book's major premise is that it was the absence of FOI in the area of governance and the extractive industry, which enabled politicians, civil servants and the politically connected to ransom and exploit Sierra Leone's mineral resources for their own profit with impunity, a state of affairs which led to underdevelopment, state collapse and an embittered civil populace especially the youth. The book postulates that as such any attempt to ensure long-term peace in Sierra Leone, should seek to avoid replicating the conditions that gave rise to that gruesome conflict- elites expropriation of national resources through endemic graft. The book proposes the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Right to Information Act 2013.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The UK's 'African albatross' : DFID policy on Sierra Leone
• 'Thicker' understandings of conflict, security and governance
• A thickening blue line : challenges of informal policing for the family support units
• Courting local justice : DFID's Justice Sector Development Programme
• Security and justice reform : political and bureaucratic constraints
• Conclusion: Living with or overcoming political and bureaucratic confines.

Justice and Security Reform: Development Agencies and Informal Institutions in Sierra Leone undertakes a deep contextual analysis of the reform of the country's security and justice sectors since the end of the civil war in 2002. Arguing that the political and bureaucratic nature of development agencies leads to a lack of engagement with informal institutions, this book examines the challenges of sustainably transforming security and justice in fragile states. Through the analysis of a post-conflict context often held up as an example of successful peacebuilding, Lisa Denney reveals how the politics of development agencies is an often forgotten constraint in security and justice reform and development efforts more broadly. Particularly suited to upper-level undergraduates and postgraduate students, as well as practitioners, this book is relevant to those interested in security and justice reform and statebuilding, as well Sierra Leone's post-conflict recovery.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Postwar transitional justice
• Role of the Inter-Religious Council
• The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Women and transitional justice
• Popular views of the TRC and the Special Court
• Perceptions of religious leaders
• Traditional reconciliation practices
• Unfinished business
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1. The instrument
• Appendix 2. Interviews of religious leaders.

In this groundbreaking study of post-conflict Sierra Leone, Lyn Graybill examines the ways in which both religion and local tradition supported restorative justice initiatives such as the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and village-level Fambul Tok ceremonies. Through her interviews with Christian and Muslim leaders of the Inter-Religious Council, Graybill uncovers a rich trove of perspectives about the meaning of reconciliation, the role of acknowledgment, and the significance of forgiveness. Through an abundance of polling data and her review of traditional practices among the various ethnic groups, Graybill also shows that these perspectives of religious leaders did not at all conflict with the opinions of the local population, whose preferences for restorative justice over retributive justice were compatible with traditional values that prioritized reconciliation over punishment. These local sentiments, however, were at odds with the international community's preference for retributive justice, as embodied in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which ran concurrently with the TRC. Graybill warns that with the dominance of the International Criminal Court in Africa-there are currently eighteen pending cases in eight countries-local preferences may continue to be sidelined in favor of prosecutions. She argues that the international community is risking the loss of its most valuable assets in post-conflict peacebuilding by pushing aside religious and traditional values of reconciliation in favor of Western legal norms.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)