Melbourne, Australia – HERE we are again as the surge of rape, gang rape, sodomy, sexual assault and their frequency (more than 600 cases during COVID-19 State of Emergency) ignites a national debate about the death penalty.
Samuel Sakama, Contributing Writer
WE need to press pause and ask ourselves: is the death penalty a solution to rape? There is now academic consensus and advocacy over the past 50 years that the death penalty does not deter violent crime. Just take a look at all of these countries that still have the death penalty: Iran, India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia and even the United States (where over 30 of 52 states are retainers)– they all have not been able to deter offenders or even manage violent crime.
AS stated by Bryant Stevenson in his book (Just Mercy), there were 300,000 prisoners in the US in the 1970s; today, that number is a whopping 2.3 million prisoners, making the US the leading jailer in the world despite a large retention of the death penalty. India has the death penalty too for violent crimes including rape however it remains one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman.
IN Saudi Arabia rapists are more likely to be sentenced to death, however they continue to perpetrate some of the worst systemic discriminations against women in human history. Alarmingly, countries like Afghanistan and Iran kill victims of sexual abuse despite having the death penalty for perpetuators. China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia kill drugs traffickers however this has neither deterred nor stopped drugs trafficking in the region. What can we learn from these countries?
WE need to call the elephants in the room which are our traditional forms of masculinity, patriarchy, corruption and bad governance. The problem is that the court system is for the elite -those that can afford to pay the numerous legal and illegal fees, to pay for a competent prosecutor or defence counsel. For the poor and uneducated, the legal system forces even the most committed survivor or parent of the survivor to give up and accepts that the law is not ‘for people like them’.
AN American Psychological Association (APA) study shows the connection between harmful masculinity and violence. The traditional ways we train boys/men and the expectations that are placed on them can be harmful, damaging, violent and even toxic. For example, boys/men are trained and expected to provide for their families, be tough, compete in a society with limited opportunities and to not show emotions. These are expectations that are mostly impossible to achieve even in advanced societies not to mention in the poorest country on the planet.
ANOTHER study by the APA inexorably links toxic masculinity and the sense of entitlement to rape and other forms of sexual violence. The sense of entitlement can be counterproductive because boys/men come to believe through systems of socialisation that they have dominion over the country’s resources including its women and girls.
RECENTLY, we saw the ruling CDC of President George Weah who declares himself ‘The Feminist-In-Chief’ put forth an “All Male-Aspirant List” for the December 2020 special senatorial elections despite the fact that there is ONLY one female left in the Senate. There is no doubt that there will be more male aspirants in the Opposition Bloc and even amongst Independents when their candidates are made public. Is the Equal Representation proposed in 2016 not dead?
HOW does President George Weah (‘The Feminist-In-Chief’), his cabinet, parliamentarians and Liberian boys and men in and out of country treat girls and women? How do Liberian girls and women who are relatives and friends of these boys and men treat other girls and women who are abused?
THE current and perhaps continual, surge of rape and sexual abuse should be a wakeup call for all of us to reflect on these questions. And it is a real opportunity for President George Weah and the good men and women of Liberia to lead this challenging and critical cultural reform to end violence against girls and women rather than appealing to the lowest denominator – the death penalty.
THE rape problem in Liberia is nothing new and we all know it. We know that Liberian women and girls remain the most marginalised economically, socially and politically. According to the TRC report, “more than 70% of all sexual based violations” (p.51) during the war were against women and girls.
WE also know that what makes headlines about the Liberian civil war (1989-2003) globally is the use of “rape as a weapon of war”. The United Nations estimates that “between 61.7 and 77.4 percent of women and girls [residing] in Liberia were raped” (p.8) during this period. Although these alarming estimates have been challenged by academics, who argued that a small sample size of 412 women used in the study during the war does not tell the whole story, rape numbers in Liberia are said to have remained high post-war and will continue to do so if the culture of impunity is not challenged.
THE civil war has long gone, however toxic masculinity exists even in time of peace. The impact of violence during war can still be seen in every corner of Liberia, and will continue if we Liberians, at all levels of power do not push for cultural reforms.
GIVEN the continued surge of this problem, it appears that the ascendance of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her post-conflict women’s rights agenda have arguably had a little meaningful impact for the majority of Liberian women and girls. The everyday realities for women and girls continue to be impacted by toxic masculinity that even high profile cases such as Little Angel and More Than Me have done little more than expressed their plights.
HOW about the post-conflict foundations laid by the ARC, IMC, IRC, NRC, OXFAM and etc through donor goodwill in relation to “Sexual & Gender-Based Violence” (SGBV)? Even today, an army of billboards depicting a half-naked man over a frightened woman continue to splash “STOP RAPE” messages in urban areas around the country, although these NGOs have all disappeared. Why can’t the current government continue GBV prevention and response programmes at the micro and macro levels? Why not invest in these, instead of the death penalty?
AMNESTY International reports that the death penalty is fading out globally with a total of 142 countries (including Liberia), abolishing the practice of intentional killing and only 56 countries (including 16 in Africa) retaining it. Liberia’s last execution was in 2000 and the state has been on a de facto moratorium since then, despite estimates that 14 people were on death row at the end of 2019. Liberia is also a signatory to a number of international human rights instruments that are against the dead penalty. Post-conflict Liberia has not sanctioned the killing of anybody- let us continue this path.
ALTHOUGH the current debate understandably makes the case for the death penalty attractive at a glance, evidence shows that governments and societies that lack innovative solutions turn to the death penalty to show that they are doing something to combat violent crimes and even ‘tough on crime’. But the dead penalty does not work.
WHAT works are therapeutic and innovative programs including restorative justice, psychosocial support, education, treatment, access to justice, early intervention and compensation where possible, which are said to have greater impacts for victims and offenders alike rather than inhumane punishment. How much of national budget do we currently allocate to such programs? There is increased advocacy around the world to fund crime intervention programs rather than cruel (ineffective) punishment – the notion is called justice reinvestment.
THE death penalty violates the most fundamental human right – the right to life – and it is a cruel, inhumane and barbaric punishment, which often discriminates against the most vulnerable people in society. Liberia’s development indicators show current levels of poverty, vulnerability and a flawed justice system that is more likely to indict the poor than the rich/powerful. Today, substantive equality before the law remains only a vision especially for the poor. Most importantly, the death penalty does not give justice to victims or genuinely relief their suffering, it only extends the suffering to another family.
THE current Rape Law provides clearly for up to ten (10) years and life imprisonment for serious offenders. The government should review and create innovative solutions such as access to justice programs, a national sex offenders’ registrar, compulsory treatment programs, reverse the principle of the onus of proof on the perpetrator and create systems where law enforcement/ the prosecution can lead litigation to avoid families swaying evidence to protect the perpetrator rather than resort to the death penalty.
WE know from our recent history that “13 men” and even more top government officials were sentenced to death by firing squad in 1980 for economic crimes and corruption, however those killings did not end corruption. Corruption increased instead and remains one of the most challenging problems of our country today. It is evident that the use of the death penalty by the coup plotters then only killed people, it did not kill corruption!
IN CONCLUSION, public support for the death penalty often goes hand in hand with a lack of reliable information about the practice and the presumption that it would reduce crime. It does not! It is the hope of the writer that this article will close this gap by providing empirical evidence to add to this all-important national debate.