Looking for the law in Liberia
Thursday, September 06, 2007
A few weeks ago in Liberia, I met with several women’s groups who told me about the new “rape law” which had come into force last year. The passing of this law is a great achievement for the people who had campaigned hard to seek justice for victims of sexual violence in Liberia. The victims are many. A 2005 survey in 4 counties indicated that 91.7% of 1,216 women and girls interviewed had been subjected to multiple violent acts during Liberia’s conflict.
So the women’s groups were understandably proud of the new law, but were disappointed by its lack of enforcement. The Rape Amendment Act has had little, if any, effect on stemming the high incidence of sexual violence so far. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told me that in just one hospital in the capital, Monrovia, there were 513 cases of rape reported in the first 6 months of 2007, 174 of them involving victims under 12 years of age. The cases reported to MSF are probably only the tip of the iceberg, because of the stigma attached to reporting rape in this society. Aid groups and other non-governmental organizations feel that the police, lawyers and judges do not understand the law, and that rape cases are not being dealt with properly by the courts.
Having heard so much about the rape law, and since I am a lawyer, I decided that I wanted to see a copy of it. So I asked the next organization I visited for a copy, but they didn’t have one. I asked a number of other organizations, with the same reply. Even groups who were running awareness-raising programs with communities about the rape law didn’t have a copy of it! By this time I was beginning to question whether or not a new rape law had really been enacted.
Finally, while visiting Lofa county in the north-west of Liberia one organization gave me a summary of the new rape law, which was a good start. Later, I had the opportunity to sit in on a child protection meeting – where representatives of government, UN agencies and NGOs meet to discuss issues affecting children in the county. Someone talked about a rape case where the victim was a 9-year-old girl and the alleged perpetrator was a 15-year-old boy. The magistrate had thrown the case out of court because he said that this situation was not covered by the rape law, as the boy was under 18 and there was no evidence that the girl had not consented (despite her young age). The magistrate had apparently told the families that they should just talk to the boy and girl and tell them not to do this again.
Many meeting participants were understandably outraged by this decision of the court – surely this situation must be covered by the rape law? Surely the magistrate’s ruling was not a legal one? While a heated discussion raged, it became apparent that, of the gathering of 25 people responsible for child protection in the county, no one had a copy of the rape law. I was a researcher who had just come to observe the meeting, but I ended up sharing my copy of the summary of the rape law with these well-meaning people.
However, it soon became clear that having the “rape law” alone – in full or in summary - was not sufficient to determine legality in any event - since it is an amendment to another law (which does deal with children’s legal incapacity to give consent), and none of us had a copy of that law.
I was puzzled by this difficulty in obtaining the laws of Liberia; there is no Government gazette, and – unsurprisingly in a country that had no electricity for 15 years – no website on which they are posted. So I asked a member of the American Bar Association in Monrovia if he could explain why the law is so inaccessible. He told me that, a while ago, the Liberian government had sought assistance to codify the laws of Liberia. US funding was granted for this undertaking, and the contract had gone to one private company, which had subcontracted to another private company – a Liberian-owned company registered in the US. This company claims to have copyrighted the laws and law reports of Liberia, and is charging US$5,000 for copies of the compilations of the laws. The Rape Amendment Act is not even included in the compilation. So with the puzzle partially solved – I certainly did not have $5,000 to spare -- I left Liberia without fully understanding or analyzing the Liberian laws on rape (although I did at least find an organization with a copy of the rape law amendment).
And I was further perplexed by another piece that my friend from the American Bar Association added to the puzzle. He informed me that one of the directors of the company that claims to have copyrighted Liberia’s laws has been nominated to become the country’s new Minister of Justice! There ought to be a Liberian law on conflict of interest - but how to afford a compilation of the laws of the country?
What does this strange story say about the situation in Liberia? Well, it’s just one example of the many areas in which the Liberian government has taken bold steps forward to try to address injustices, but where the resources and expertise are just not yet there to back up their initiatives. And there are idiosyncracies – like the copyrighting and commercial sale of copies of Liberia’s laws – that compound the problem. Passing the rape law was a very progressive move for which the Liberian government should be congratulated, but it will not translate into greater protection for survivors of rape if the law is not widely disseminated and if the people who have to implement the law are not trained to understand it.
The good news is that the American Bar Association has come up with a proposal to post all Liberian laws on the internet – and at least the international agencies in the country have generators and access to the web. Of course, this proposal will have to be approved by the Liberian government – specifically, the new Minster of Justice…
--Melanie Teff
Advocates Melanie Teff and Mark Malan recently returned from a mission to Liberia
So the women’s groups were understandably proud of the new law, but were disappointed by its lack of enforcement. The Rape Amendment Act has had little, if any, effect on stemming the high incidence of sexual violence so far. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told me that in just one hospital in the capital, Monrovia, there were 513 cases of rape reported in the first 6 months of 2007, 174 of them involving victims under 12 years of age. The cases reported to MSF are probably only the tip of the iceberg, because of the stigma attached to reporting rape in this society. Aid groups and other non-governmental organizations feel that the police, lawyers and judges do not understand the law, and that rape cases are not being dealt with properly by the courts.
Having heard so much about the rape law, and since I am a lawyer, I decided that I wanted to see a copy of it. So I asked the next organization I visited for a copy, but they didn’t have one. I asked a number of other organizations, with the same reply. Even groups who were running awareness-raising programs with communities about the rape law didn’t have a copy of it! By this time I was beginning to question whether or not a new rape law had really been enacted.
Finally, while visiting Lofa county in the north-west of Liberia one organization gave me a summary of the new rape law, which was a good start. Later, I had the opportunity to sit in on a child protection meeting – where representatives of government, UN agencies and NGOs meet to discuss issues affecting children in the county. Someone talked about a rape case where the victim was a 9-year-old girl and the alleged perpetrator was a 15-year-old boy. The magistrate had thrown the case out of court because he said that this situation was not covered by the rape law, as the boy was under 18 and there was no evidence that the girl had not consented (despite her young age). The magistrate had apparently told the families that they should just talk to the boy and girl and tell them not to do this again.
Many meeting participants were understandably outraged by this decision of the court – surely this situation must be covered by the rape law? Surely the magistrate’s ruling was not a legal one? While a heated discussion raged, it became apparent that, of the gathering of 25 people responsible for child protection in the county, no one had a copy of the rape law. I was a researcher who had just come to observe the meeting, but I ended up sharing my copy of the summary of the rape law with these well-meaning people.
However, it soon became clear that having the “rape law” alone – in full or in summary - was not sufficient to determine legality in any event - since it is an amendment to another law (which does deal with children’s legal incapacity to give consent), and none of us had a copy of that law.
I was puzzled by this difficulty in obtaining the laws of Liberia; there is no Government gazette, and – unsurprisingly in a country that had no electricity for 15 years – no website on which they are posted. So I asked a member of the American Bar Association in Monrovia if he could explain why the law is so inaccessible. He told me that, a while ago, the Liberian government had sought assistance to codify the laws of Liberia. US funding was granted for this undertaking, and the contract had gone to one private company, which had subcontracted to another private company – a Liberian-owned company registered in the US. This company claims to have copyrighted the laws and law reports of Liberia, and is charging US$5,000 for copies of the compilations of the laws. The Rape Amendment Act is not even included in the compilation. So with the puzzle partially solved – I certainly did not have $5,000 to spare -- I left Liberia without fully understanding or analyzing the Liberian laws on rape (although I did at least find an organization with a copy of the rape law amendment).
And I was further perplexed by another piece that my friend from the American Bar Association added to the puzzle. He informed me that one of the directors of the company that claims to have copyrighted Liberia’s laws has been nominated to become the country’s new Minister of Justice! There ought to be a Liberian law on conflict of interest - but how to afford a compilation of the laws of the country?
What does this strange story say about the situation in Liberia? Well, it’s just one example of the many areas in which the Liberian government has taken bold steps forward to try to address injustices, but where the resources and expertise are just not yet there to back up their initiatives. And there are idiosyncracies – like the copyrighting and commercial sale of copies of Liberia’s laws – that compound the problem. Passing the rape law was a very progressive move for which the Liberian government should be congratulated, but it will not translate into greater protection for survivors of rape if the law is not widely disseminated and if the people who have to implement the law are not trained to understand it.
The good news is that the American Bar Association has come up with a proposal to post all Liberian laws on the internet – and at least the international agencies in the country have generators and access to the web. Of course, this proposal will have to be approved by the Liberian government – specifically, the new Minster of Justice…
--Melanie Teff
Advocates Melanie Teff and Mark Malan recently returned from a mission to Liberia
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