Liberia-based Partnership for Sustainable Development (PaSD) has called on the country’s government to end rape, early child marriage, female genital mutilation, and other abuses.
The civil society organisation (CSO), which staged a peaceful protest in front of the ministerial complex in Congo Town, submitted petition to the government through the Ministry of Gender and the National Civil Society Council of Liberia.
The group protested at a time when President George Weah had gone to begin a two-day conference on sexual and gender-based violence with national stakeholders and development partners at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town.
Liberia has about 700 reported rape cases, according to a recent Justice Ministry report, with women’s rights advocate, Macdella Cooper, recently calling on Weah to make a policy statement on rape.
Reading the petition on behalf of the CSO in the presence of the representative from the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, and a representative from the Ministry of Gender, Ambassador Linda Lloyd advised the ministry to ensure that civic education on SGBV forms part of the action plan.
Lloyd added that the government should create a road map to ensure the reduction or end of maternal and new-born morbidity and mortality in the country.
Receiving the petition, the Chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, Mrs. Loretta Pope-Kai, promised that the recommendations would be considered during the drafting or development of the action plan to end rape and sexual-based violence.
‘We want to say that this action is timely. As you may be aware, we have an ongoing consultation to validate the roadmap, the anti-SGBV roadmap endorsed by the President’, she said.
‘So, in the revision process, as civil society actor, and as the chairperson for the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, I am going to make sure that your points are raised, and input from this petition are considered in the revision process’.
Source: Front Page Africa
Photo source: Front Page Africa
