On Saturday Liberia, is a country on the West African coast has declared “Rape” as a National Emergency due to spike in sexual cases across the country.
Liberia President, George Weah has announced that a Rape is a National Emergency along with measures to improve security and safety for women and children in the country.
President Weah has said that a committee will be appointed specially for prosecuting and expediting the sexual assault cases. Along with this, there will be a national sex offender registry that will record the number of rape cases and therefore blacklists rapists.
In a press statement, Weah said –
In order to overhaul the security provided to women, the Liberian government will set up the “national security task force”. The high-powered panel will be tasked with reducing sexual and gender-based violence,
Liberia which is also known as the Republic of Liberia has a population of over 4.5 million. The country is worst affected by rape and sexual assaults. The country which suffered a civil war for 14 long years from 1989 to 2003 has inherited the rape crimes as a part of a war crime.
Read, also | Volcano Erupts with Electric-Blue Lava in Indonesia
Sadly, the rate of rape crime is high and the justice for the same is at the lowest level. Some reports suggest that only 2% of rape crimes have been convicted among the 803 cases filed officially. These cases were reported from 2016.
Alone in this year of 2020, just in a span of 2 months that is between June and August, the nation has recorded 600 rape cases. These are the figures suggested by the Women Empowerment Network in Liberia which is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization).
In October 2019, the country was hit by a notorious sex abuse scandal due to which Girls in entire Liberia had to shut down completely.