Speaking about or against FGM appears to be a taboo. This extends to the National Legislature where members shy away from open debates on the subject for fear of losing their seats in future elections.
When passing the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) in 2017, the Liberian Legislature omitted the provision that criminalizes and punishes perpetrators of FGM. The original draft of the DVA had a provision to amend the Penal Code so that it is an offence to preform FGM on girls below the age of consent, eighteen (18), or women above 18 who withhold their consent.
Though Liberia is a signatory to many regional and international instruments that speak against FGM, the practice is still prevalent amongst many local tribes in the country. Numerous articles and medical reports, exposing the dangers and hazards associated with FGM have also failed to dissuade locals from engaging in this barbaric practice.
According to the Liberia Demography and Health Survey report-2013, the prevalence of FGM (Sande Membership) is higher among older women, increasing from 31 percent among women age 15-19 to 72 percent among women age 45-49. The report also puts membership at more common among rural women (65 percent) than urban women (41 percent).
Society membership is reportedly more common among women in the North Central (73 percent) and North Western (72 percent) regions, as compared with the South Central (39 percent), South Eastern A (23 percent), and Southeastern B (5 percent) regions.
Membership in the society according to the report is inversely correlated with both level of education and wealth quintile, ranging from 71 percent of women with no education to 31 percent of women with a secondary and higher education, and from 70 percent of women in the lowest wealth quintile to 29 percent of women in the highest.
In 2016, Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf enacted Executive Order No. 92 which prohibits FGM for girls below 18 years and allows it for women above 18 who give consent.
However, no one was ever been prosecuted under the order with a few arrests in December 2019 of some woman from Nimba County who are yet to be indicted and processed for trial. This article sets out the legal wrongs in the practice of FGM and seeks to get perpetrators to desist or face prosecution for this harmful and unlawful practice.
Most tribes in Liberia are known to have two secret societies; the Poro society, which is for males, and the Sande society which is for females. Induction into these societies is done by approval of the parents with or without the consent of the individual to be inducted.
That is, as long as an individual’s parents agree for his/her induction, they are compelled to consent to the process. It is during the induction process into the Sande Soceity that the FGM is performed.
In consideration of the taboo nature of this subject in Liberia, this discussion will focus on the simple reason why I believe the practice of FGM is unconstitutional and an illegal traditional practice rather than the processes of the Sande Society.
Liberia runs two legal systems in parallel. The formal system which is based on Anglo-American Law or Common Law Practice and the Customary Law based on traditional African practices.
Article 2 of the 1986 Constitution declares the constitution as the supreme and fundamental law of Liberia and states further that any laws, treaties, customs, statutes, decree, and regulation that comes in conflict with the constitution is void and has no legal effect.
Therefore, any traditional practice or belief that comes into conflict with the constitution must be denounced and discouraged. The practice of FGM clearly violates the constitution of the Republic of Liberia, as well as the Penal Code of Liberia.
Conscripting persons into the Sande and forcibly performing FGM, a bodily injury, against their will violates their right to free movement enshrined in article 13 (b) of the constitution. This act also violates section 14.50 (1) of the penal code under the caption kidnapping, which among other things states, “a person is guilty of kidnapping if he unlawfully removes another from his place of residence or business, or a substantial distance from the vicinity where he is found, or if he unlawfully confines another for substantial period in a place of isolation…… (e) to inflict bodily injury……”.
The condition under which the FGM is performed also violates section 14.51 (felonious restraint) of the penal code which states, “a person commits a felony of the third degree if he knowingly: (a) restrains another unlawfully in circumstances exposing him to risk of serious bodily injury; or (b) restrains another with the purpose of holding him in a condition of involuntary servitude.
Further to this, and probably most importantly, Article 14 of the constitution in pertinent part states, “All persons shall be entitle to freedom of thought, and religion and no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment thereof except as may be require by law”.
When people are subjected to customs and practices without their consent, it violates their constitutional rights to freedom of thought and religion. The constitution bars compelling any person to join a particular religion or practice, all individual must be free within the confines of the law to decide their choice of religion.
FGM, from all indications, bears no positive impact on the victims. It has no proven benefits and primarily is a customary practice indulged in because it has always been in society. The need to curtail this dehumanizing act cannot be overemphasized.
Application of the laws which bind all Liberians to a given code of conduct to achieve this is for me the most appropriate course of action. We must stand strong in breaking this age-old hazardous practice and save the thousands of young girls affected by this malpractice.