In Liberia rape survivors are increasingly speaking up and seeking help as awareness of rights increases, but social taboos persist and seeking justice does not always mean that justice is served.
Sexual violence consistently comes first or second (after armed robbery) in monthly police crime listings in the capital Monrovia. The majority of rape victims are children, according to treatment centre statistics. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Monrovia reports their youngest survivor at 21 months old.
“The civil war is over,” said Monrovia resident Tupee Kiadi. “But the new war is rape, especially targeting teenagers and babies. During the war we had peacekeepers to prevent further violence…but women do not have peacekeepers to stop rape.”
During the war women and girls were subjected to rape (commonly gang rape) and sexual slavery, many becoming pregnant from rape. Since peace was sealed in 2003, sex crimes – and impunity – have persisted throughout the country.
Awareness up
MSF launched a campaign on 26 October with the message “Rape is a hospital and clinical business”, to bring rape out into the open and to educate Liberians about the free MSF-run medical and psychological services at Island Hospital in Tweh Farm, western Monrovia.
Clinic visits are up over recent years, said MSF psychologist Elias Abi-aad, who hopes further awareness has been raised by the campaign.
Elizabeth Zro, a social worker and counsellor at the clinic, told IRIN, “Rape is a huge problem here, but people are more open about it now than they used to be a few years ago.”
The MSF clinic takes in on average 70 patients per month, 80 percent of whom are girls under 18; just under half of those aged 12 and under.
In addition to a medical examination, survivors are given protection from sexually transmitted infection, means to block HIV infection and pregnancy if it is within 72 hours of the crime, a medical certificate that can be used in court and several rounds of counselling.
Deweh Gray, president of the Association of Female Lawyers in Liberia (AFELL), told IRIN: “The changing attitude we see is the increased reporting of these cases by people who want to access the system.”