In Liberia: Rape Still a Weapon

President Sirleaf (attired in gray & black) flanked by women at this year's celebration of Int'l Women's Day in Liberia

Rape, especially child rape, is disgustingly becoming a way of life for some selfish, irresponsible men within the Liberian society. I mean, babies as young as three months are often preyed upon by these thugs, with impunity. Granted that rape became endemic as a weapon of fear during Liberia’s decade-long civil war. But why is it still rampant, going unpunished more often than not?

In its 2013 human rights report, the U.S. State Department, blamed the problem on judicial weakness; adding that some 280 rape cases were buried, as a result. 

Horrifyingly, in the last two years, the Ministry of Gender reported a total of 2493 sexual and gender-based violence crimes across Liberia, up from 2029 cases in 2010.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf revealed in an alarming statement on March 8, 2014, that a majority of these (58 percent) were rape cases, of which 92 percent or 1,348 involved rapes of children between the ages of three months to 17 years. 

In the first six months of 2013, four referral hospitals in Monrovia alone treated 814 rape cases, 95 percent of which were children, the President continued. In 2012, a total of five child deaths were recorded as a result of rape. In 2013, ten children died as a direct result of being raped. 

"The incidents are rising and becoming more brutal," the President added. “I wear black today to the memory of all the young women whose lives have been taken from them by vicious and violent men. I wear black for the 13-year old girl whose future was sacrificed by her grandmother who compromised rape with an offender by having him taken out of prison when he had been arrested for this vicious act,” stressing, “I assure you he has been rearrested and she has been fired.”

The Liberian leader has over and again raised the red flag on the issue of rape, describing it in some instances as “alarming” and urging that Government worked along with partners to adopt a domestic violence law “to bring an end to these heinous crimes.”

But is the situation being remedied? Well, rape continues to "reign" as a widespread crime committed against women throughout the country. And this leaves us to wonder as to whether the enactment of the 2006 Rape Law, which calls for tougher punishment for rape convicts, has become a curse on women and girls rather than a blessing to prevent them from being abused in a variety of ways.

The US State Department, in its 2010 report, observed that though the 2006 rape law legally defined rape, the Sirleaf-Administration did not always effectively enforce the law. Under the 2006 rape law, the maximum sentence for first-degree rape is life imprisonment and 10 years for second-degree rape. Accused first-degree rapists are not eligible for bail.