On Monday, August 17, 2020 He For She Crusaders Liberia (HEFOSEL) National Coordinator, Tamba Forkpah Jedidiah Johnson, expressed dissatisfaction at members of the National Legislature, which has oversight, law-making and representation as their term of reference, for their continued silence in the wake of the increasing gender-based violence cases in the country, particularly rape.
Johnson, in disapproval, branded the lawmakers as self-seeking legislators who have repeatedly refused to act, even in the wake of public outcry for stringent measures to be taken against perpetrators, as rapists, the engineers of the barbaric and inhumane war against women and girls. The human rights defender further stated, “The legislators should have, by now, invited the Ministers of Justice, and Gender to provide mechanism being created in eradicating the increase in rape cases in the country but, on the contrary, these egotistical leaders are using times that they are being paid for by Liberians to engage into pre-campaign for themselves and their colleagues at the expense of the Liberian people, who are in pain and agony.”
HEFOSEL boss added that the refusal of lawmakers to act constrained President George M. Weah to unadvisedly concord with Major General Prince Charles Johnson for a consideration to be given to capital punishment (death sentence), not realizing that Liberia is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that abolished capital punishment, ratified on 16th September 2005, meaning it is mandatory that all state parties (governments) adhere straightly to the convention.
Johnson further started that HEFOSEL feels that death penalty (capitol punishment) will not address rape in Liberia in the absence of stringent laws and speedy, robust adjudication of cases. “If all of the perpetrators are killed today in Liberia, with the feeble Judiciary system couple with the lack of political will and interference of justice by influential leaders, the issue of rape will still continue in Liberia. Though He For She Crusaders Liberia does not subscribed to the call being made by both President Weah and General Johnson in relation to capital punishment for rapists, due to Liberia’s obligation to ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political), there should be an exclusive jail facility where these barbaric creatures called rapists can be placed from the reach of mobility in order to serve their sentence,” Jonson observed.
He For She Crusaders Liberia is calling on all women, girls and men of Liberia to join forces together to punish the lawmakers by not voting them back into office as senators, since they do not care for the well being of Liberian women and girls. “Let us vote them out as a protest to demonstrate our level of discontentment over the manner and form they are treating Liberian women and girls,” he noted. “HEFOSEL calls on the President, His Excellency, Dr. George M. Weah, as He For She and Chief Feminist, to consider the establishment of an exclusive cell in one of the remotest parts of Liberia to incarcerate these rapists; by so doing it will be more than death penalty. Additionally, we are calling on the government to consider equipping Criminal Court ‘E’ with more manpower and logistics in order to provide speedy trial.”
