The Women NGO Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL) has proposed a number of measures to help combat rape and other sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) issues in Liberia.

Development Dairies gathered that WONGOSOL, in a policy brief, proposed a sustained policy engagement and influencing advocacy with the inter-ministerial taskforce to follow up on the implementation of the anti-rape and SGBV reform commitments made by the government.

The group also proposed the need to advocate a holistic judicial reform addressing the legal, institutional and human resource functions.

Liberia has about 700 reported rape cases, according to a recent Justice Ministry report.

Spokesperson for WONGOSL, Lena Cummings, who made a presentation on behalf of the group, suggested the need to become more proactive to engage the government, adding that it should not be seen as the people’s thing, but a national issue for all.

She said that the Ministry of Gender had recorded 992 rape cases this year, adding that when WONGOSOL did its own study in Montserrado and Margibi Counties, it documented 109 cases.

‘This suggests communities and homes are gender -unsafe -environment for women, girls and babies’, she said.

Cummings recalled that a two-day National Anti-Rape and SGBV conference held at the Ministerial Complex from 8 to 9 September, following the three-day record anti-rape protest that represented crucial reform action by the government.

She said, ‘Political will for the reform of the judicial system is also cited as a challenge, specifically looking at the structural challenges, quantity, and quality of human resource and system rigidity, as well as systemic corruption that back survivors in their path to accessing justice and undermine speedy trial’.

Source: The New Dawn Liberia

Photo source: The New Dawn Liberia