Other complementary legislations to the Constitution for the guarantee of equality before the law and by the law are the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965, Civil Procedure Act 2007, , what has been famously labelled “the Gender Laws” (inclusive of the Devolution of Estate Act 2007, the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act 2007 and the Domestic Violence Act 2007), the Chieftaincy Act 2009, the Local Courts Act of 2011, the Disability Act of 2011, the Legal Aid Act 2012 and the Sexual Offences Act 2012 which make provision for the security of equal opportunity within the law. General Practice Theoretically, the Constitution affords a guarantee for the enjoyment of this right; this is not always the case in practice. This is not a misnomer on the part of the law makers. Customs and tradition tends to give the effect of the Constitutional guarantee as a misnomer due to the fact that they provide inroads for discrimination and unequal protection of the law especially against women. In practice for example,a lot ofsensitive cases in traditional settings are heard in the Poro Bush. The Poro Society is a male secret society and as such women and non members do not have any form of access to the Poro Bush. These cases are therefore deliberated upon in their absence and in most cases, not in their favour. The recently enacted Devolution of Estate Act 2007 itself contains discriminatory provisions against illegitimate children. For the purposes of the Act, Section 2 of the Act defines a child as one who is born to the deceased and his lawful spouse or one born out of marriage while the deceased was married but recognised by both the deceased and his spouse, or child born to the deceased while he was unmarried and recognised by the deceased as his child. As such, an illegitimate child born while the deceased and his spouse were married but not recognised by both as the child of the deceased cannot claim under the Act. Also, as a matter of customary practice, illegitimate children cannot contest in any chieftaincy election. Section 8(a) of the Chieftaincy Act provides that a person can only be qualified for the chieftaincy title when he is born in wedlock to a rightful claimant or where tradition specifies, has direct maternal or paternal lineage to the rightful claimant. Another area of concern is, although the Constitution of Sierra Leone makes provision for the access to witnesses, it does not make provision for the protection of such witnesses. This in effect affects the rights to equal protection of the law of individuals. The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) with support from the Special Court has recently established a Witness Protection Unit within the SLP however which should go some way towards providing the protection required for the witnesses. Article 4 Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right. Legal framework 8