Combating Gender-Based Violence in Liberia
By Dr. Sita Ranchod-Nilsson
All around the world, violence against women – ranging from
rape and sexual assault to human trafficking and domestic abuse
– is on the rise. It can be especially devastating in low-income
countries, where high levels of violence against women keeps many
from generating income, taking care of their families and fully
participating in their communities. Violence tramples women’s
human rights, and undermines their communities’ prospects
for economic and social development.
Over the past several months, Emory’s Institute for Developing
Nations (IDN) has been collaborating with The Carter Center to
better understand and combat this violence in one severely affected
nation, Liberia.
Liberia recently emerged from a devastating fourteen-year civil
war which left many of the country’s institutions in shambles.
As part of a comprehensive effort to build peace and democracy,
the government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf invited The
Carter Center to offer advice and assistance on rebuilding Liberia’s
Justice System. Since October 2006, The Carter Center has worked
with the Liberian Ministry of Justice to support the development
of stable and effective rule of law throughout the country, especially
by helping to develop strategies for harmonizing traditional practices
with national laws.
After almost one year of work, The Carter Center and their Liberian
partners found that community discussions about the justice system
– particularly in rural communities – were often dominated
by controversies related to violence against women. Despite recent
legal reforms that give women rights to property in marriage (2005)
and strengthen rape statutes to protect women within marriages
(2006), there remains a wide gap between the law and actual social
practices.
Tom Crick, a senior political analyst in The Carter Center’s
Conflict Resolution Program, asked IDN to partner with their “rule
of law” initiative to offer some new perspectives on gender
based violence.
In early 2008, IDN formed a “Working Group on Gender-Based
Violence in Liberia” comprised of Emory faculty from history,
law, anthropology, political science and women’s studies.
The group traveled to Liberia in March to work with the Ministry
of Gender, colleagues from the University of Liberia, and researchers
and activists from NGOs to understand the root causes of this
complex problem. The Working Group has three goals: to offer short-term
recommendations on addressing gender-based violence, to identify
areas where research can provide critical information for improving
policies and programs on gender-based violence, and to identify
Liberian research partners who can collaborate with IDN researchers.
During our initial visit to Liberia, the Working Group divided
its time between the capital city of Monrovia and Bong country,
a rural area about three hours north. In a town called Palala
we met the Kpaai Women’s Literacy Association. These women
started working together during the civil war to help each other
survive, and now focus on women’s literacy and social problems
in the community. Their experiences illustrate both the problems
women face, and the imagination and resourcefulness they use to
confront them.
Women in this organization know about the new laws giving property
rights to women and criminalizing rape within marriage. They learned
about the laws through local community education programs such
as the Modia theater group – a group of talented young people
who educate communities through creative and entertaining plays.
Although many of these rural women are illiterate, they understand
and support the new laws.
The women also know that while the law may grant them important
rights and protections, the local court system may not be a reliable
ally in supporting their claims. Many areas of the coutry do not
have a reliable system of local transportation and the Justice
of the Peace and the County Magistrate may be many miles away.
Those that do manage to get to court might be asked to pay 1500
Liberian dollars ($25) in filing fees and charges – even
for paper! For the women of Palala, this is an exorbitant sum.
Even those who manage to pay for an initial claim often face the
financial and logistical burden of additional court hearings.
In Palala, as in many parts of Africa, there are parallel systems
of authority: the statutory law recognized by the state and enforced
through the court system, and customary law administered by local
authorities such as chiefs, headmen and local councils. The new
laws affecting women are part of the statutory system of law,
but the most effective local authorities are the chiefs and headmen
who implement customary laws. Since most rural women cannot rely
on the statutory legal system, they bring their concerns and disputes
instead to these local leaders and try to persuade them to make
decisions that reflect the statutory law.
To accomplish this, the women do not hesitate to join together
and exert their power as a group; together, they can make life
very uncomfortable for the local chief or men who are mistreating
their wives. At one meeting in a neighboring village, a dispute
was brought forward during our Working Group delegation’s
visit. When the local chief was not amenable to resolving the
dispute in line with the new laws, the women in the community
stood up, turned their backs, and walked out in disgust, causing
great embarrassment to the chief.
These seemingly small forms of authority and activism matter a
great deal. Local women’s organizations are an important
platform for women to obtain information about new laws and to
exert pressure for change in their local communities, often by
working through customary authorities. The women of Palala have
embraced the substance of the new legal reforms and are finding
ways to uphold them in the context of local, customary institutions.
This strategy may go a long way toward decreasing gender-based
violence, although the concern remains that while they address
local issues in the short term, they might slow down the building
of an effective national judicial system. But little is known
about how customary institutions are being used to combat gender-based
violence, particularly in Liberia’s rural communities. This
is a key research area identified by the Working Group.
Addressing violence against women is a complex undertaking. It
involves identifying the scope and magnitude of the problem, understanding
the origins and contributing factors and finding ways to support
local women’s groups that are working for change. Through
research, undertaken in partnership with in-country policy-makers
and community organizations, IDN is working to support changes
that will improve the lives of women like those in the Kpaai Literacy
Association.
Sita Ranchod-Nilsson, PhD is the director of the Institute for Developing
Nations.
To learn more, visit
www.idn.emory.edu
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