UN Envoy Encourages Involvement in Campaign against Rape in Liberia
By Robert Valencia
The United Nations joined the Liberian Government, the national Gender-Based Violence Task Force and other partners in launching an anti-rape campaign on 14 March 2008, which brought together local authorities, students, youth and women groups. The announcement was made in the town of Harper, located in Liberia’s southeastern Maryland county.
LIBERIA: A billboard in Westpoint, a slum area of Monrovia, the capital, shows a woman fighting off two rapists in a field. The text of the billboard reads, ‘Fight Rape. Rape is a Crime!!! (Punishable by Law.)’ The public service announcement is sponsored by the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, whose logo appears in the upper left corner (Photo: UNICEF/ GIACOMO PIROZZI)
In a press release from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Rule of Law, Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, said that “though we in the UN have teamed up with the Government of Liberia and launched the National Plan of Action for Gender-Based Violence in 2006, rape continues to be the highest reported crime” in the country. She added that “everyone has a role to play; this is not a women-only matter, the men must take action. I believe rape can be prevented and stopped only when men and boys get actively involved and concerned enough”.
Liberia’s Solicitor-General Tiawan Gongloe asked his countrymen to get involved in the campaign. “Rapists are trying hard to damp the hope of our women and children”, he said, noting that everyone must show that an era of evil, fear and intimidation is over in Liberia, and pleaded with the Government to protect women and children. “We too must be persistent in our campaign to identify, name and shame rapists, as well as bring them to justice”, he added. Information Minister Laurence Bropleh said “UNMIL and Liberia’s international partners have brought peace to us, but if a child in Grand Cape Mount County is raped, her dream would not be a reality; if a child in Grand Bassa is raped, the dream of a child in other parts in Liberia is lost”. He pointed out that Liberians can be agents of change and were the ones who could make Liberia the country they have always dreamed of.
At the launch of the anti-rape campaign in Harper, Liberians marked the day by playing soccer, watching anti-rape video movies on large screens and having a parade through the streets, where children, women and members of religious organizations chanted and sang anti-rape songs and slogans. In addition, a concert to promote the campaign was held at the Harper stadium, featuring local stars and artists from the capital city of Monrovia.
