MONROVIA – The Liberia Women Forum (LWF), a women advocacy group in Monrovia has welcomed the President’s decision to declare rape as national emergency.
The LWF says it is satisfied with the President’s latest action taken and called on all Liberians to work together to fight rape.
The president of LWF, Kadi Coleman-Porte said President Weah’s action is timely, especially at the time rape is on the increase in Liberia.
“We from the Liberia Women Forum wholeheartedly welcome the President’s position to declare rape as national emergency. Thank you, Mr. President for your action. We hope that the Ministry of Gender will take cue and work with all women groups to end this madness against our kids and the society at large,” Madam Porte said.
Madam Porte, however, condemned the action of perpetrators and urged men involved to immediately stop.
“There are babies and kids being raped, even young boys being sodomized by those evil men and this needs to stop; with the President’s declaration, I hope all this will come to an end,” she added.
She is, however, calling on international gender groups to focus their lenses on Liberia by working with necessary women and gender groups to curb rape.
Madam Porte said more protection and sensitization need to be provided to the public in order to educate them on the negative impact rape has on survivors.
“Of course, we need support to do this, the public needs to know and be educated on the impact rape has on our kids who has been victimized,” she said.
Under the National Rape Emergency, President George Weah has announced initial measures to include, the appointment of a Special Prosecutor for rape, the setting up of a National Sex Offender Registry, among others.
President Weah however issued a proclamation declaring RAPE a ‘National Emergency.’
The President issued the proclamation recently after Cabinet convened and received the National Anti Rape & SGBV Roadmap.
The roadmap on SGBV which evolved deliberations of Inter-Ministerial Task Force was validated by the National Anti-Rape & Sexual & Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Conference held at the Ministerial Complex on September 8 – 9, 2020.
Under the National Rape Emergency, the President has announced initial measures to include, the appointment of a Special Prosecutor for rape, the setting up of a National Sex Offender Registry, the establishment of a National Security Task Force on SGBV, the allotment of an initial amount of USD Two Million (USD$2,000,000) to fund and beef up the fight against rape and SGBV.