Sonkita Conteh

Managing Director, Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Sonkita is a Sierra Leonean lawyer and co-founder of Namati. He leads a team of community paralegals in Sierra Leone working with communities to secure their land rights and protect their environment. He has nearly 20 years’ of litigation experience and was a member of the General Legal Council, the body that regulates the legal profession in Sierra Leone. In 2017, he was named as one of the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.  Sonkita is also a Tutu Leadership Fellow.

Selected Media and Publications:

• Annihilation By Deforestation; How The Pursuit Of Short Term “Gain” Will Be The Death Of A Country, Sierra Express Media, February 8, 2021
• From Law To Action: The Local Content Agency Act 2016, Sierra Express Media, February 19, 2017
• Non‐judicial grievance mechanisms in land‐related disputes in Sierra Leone, FAO Legal Papers No. 99, 2016
• Condoning corporate malfeasance in large-scale land acquisitions: Is Sierra Leone becoming the “Wild West”? The Salone Monitor. June 29, 2016.
• “Lack of funding may derail implementation of Sierra Leone’s progressive land policy.” The Salone Monitor. June 07, 2016. 
• “Bringing law to life: Paralegal interventions in natural resource exploitation.” This is Africa. April 20, 2016. 
• “Sierra Leone News: Writing the new Sierra Leone constitution: why an open, inclusive and objective process is necessary.” Awoko. November 19, 2015.
• “Questions we need to ask about what would be the second largest rubber plantation in Africa.” Sierra Leone Standard Times. August 31, 2015. 
• “Large scale land investments and Sierra Leone’s draft National Land Policy.” Concord Times. May 27, 2015. 
• “Land owning families in Eastern Sierra Leone sue Chinese company and Paramount Chief to recover land.” Sierra Express Media. February 17, 2015.
• “Sierra Leone’s proposed land tenure make-over: Is the draft National Land Policy equal to the challenge?” Awoko. February 10, 2015.
• “Walking the talk this time: abolishing the death penalty in Sierra Leone.” Sierra Express Media. June 01, 2014. 
• “The making of a new constitution: suggestions for the committee of 80.” Sierra Express Media. March 16, 2014.
• “Absconding jurors: one more reason for criminal justice reform in Sierra Leone.” Sierra Express Media. February 28, 2014. 
• How to write equitable large-scale land leases: an advice to lawyers.” Sierra Express Media. October 3, 2013.
• “Bail in Sierra Leone’s Courts: through the lens of the GAVI trials.” Sierra Express Media.  June 21, 2013.
• “Obama Meets Koroma: Time to Talk Land Rights.”  (with Vivek Maru)  The Huffington Post.  March 27, 2013.
• “From Law to Practice Part I: The Sexual Offences Act 2012″  Sierra Express Media.  February 25, 2013.
• “Between paralegals and local courts: chiefs and conflict resolution in rural Sierra Leone.”  Sierra Express Media.  January 27, 2013.
• “Discarding the resource curse label: the need for corporate accountability in natural resource exploitation in Sierra Leone.”  Sierra Express Media. October 2012.
• “The Sierra Leone Judiciary and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Recommendations: A case of motion but no progress?”   Open Society Initiative for West Africa  11 June 2012.
• “New legal aid law in Sierra Leone embraces the role of paralegals.” (with Lotta Teale) Open Society Foundations. May 11, 2012.
• “Exploring the community-level impact of paralegals in rural Sierra Leone.” Sierra Express Media.  September 2011.
• “Providing concrete solutions to basic justice problems: How community-based paralegals are making a difference in rural Sierra Leone.”  The Monitor, Volume 50, Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law. April 2011.
• “ESC Rights in practice: The right to adequate water and sanitation.” (with Lara El-Jazairi) Haki Zetu Handbook Series, Amnesty International & COHRE. 2010.
• “Expanding grassroots justice services in Sierra Leone”   Justice-ILAG Legal Aid Newsletter. Sept-Oct. 2010.
• “The whereabouts of reason in judgments and rulings of courts in Sierra Leone”   Sierra Express Media. March 2010.
• “10 misconceptions about paralegals in Sierra Leone”   Sierra Express Media. March 2010.
• “Empowering the poor through community-based paralegals”  The Monitor, Volume 42, Center for Accountability and Rule of Law. March 2010.
• “Analysis of the judgment of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in the Joe Slovo Community Evictions Case” (with Bret Thiele)  Housing & ESC Rights Law Quarterly, Volume 6, No 3, September 2009.
• “The significance of human rights in MDG-based policy making on water and sanitation: An application to Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Laos” (with Ashfaq Khalfan, Kerubo Okioga, Rasika Mendes, Lara El-Jazaira & Thorsten Keifer)  COHRE, Geneva.  2009.
•  “A rights-based review of the legal and policy framework of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector”   COHRE, Geneva. 2008.
• “Water Services Fault Lines: An Assessment of South Africa’s Water and Sanitation Provision across 15 Municipalities”  (with Kate Tissington, Marc Dettmann, Malcolm Langford, and Jackie Dugard)  COHRE, CALS & NHCR.  October 2008.
• “First major test case on the right to water in South Africa” (with Sandra Liebenberg)  Legal Brief Today.  May 2008.
• “Big leap forward for the right of access to water in South Africa” (with Ashfaq Khalfan) ESR Review, Volume 9, No 2.  June 2008.
• “A Landmark Judgment of the South African High Court in the Pre-paid Water Meters Case: Lindiwe Mazibuko & Ors v. The City of Johannesburg & Ors” (with Ahfaq Khalfan and Bret Thiele)  Housing and ESC Rights Law Quarterly, Volume 5 No. 2 June 2008.
• “Case Studies on Efforts to Implement the Right to Water and Sanitation in Urban Areas: South Africa” in H Grimes (Ed) Case Studies on Efforts to Implement the Right to Water and Sanitation in Urban Areas: Brazil, Kenya, South Africa and Sri Lanka”  (with Hilary Grimes and Ashfaq Khalfan)  COHRE Working Paper prepared for UN-Habitat, March 2008.
• “Country Review of Legal and Political Challenges to the Domestication of the Anti-Corruption Conventions in Sierra Leone”   Transparency International.  2006.