Violence Against Women Is A Death Threat, Not Scare Tactics–Women Group Alarms
Ahead of the 2023 presidential and legislative elections, the Eminent Women of the Women’s Situation Room (WSR) on Thursday released a comprehensive report on the peace, security and election of Liberia, at which time it described electoral violence against women as a death threat, not scare tactics.
The report outlined and highlighted the unsafe environment for women in political activities, insecurity, influx of narcotic drugs, abuse of tradition in politics, among others.
“Electoral violence against women is a death threat, not a scare tactics. We have witnessed this from the bloody altercation with machetes, stones and other weapons against the representative-candidate Cornelia Kruah-Tokpa to the putting of gas around the house of representative-candidate Telia Urey while she was in the house and lighting a fire to burn her alive.
“We also witnessed the hunting of Botoe Kanneh with guns like a deer in the forest. The perpetration of these acts of violence was intended to have them killed,” the report stated.
The report was released based on the 18-month project which was implemented by the ABIC, in partnership with ZOA-Liberia, with support from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund covering 20 pilot communities in Bong County and Montserrado County.
The mandate of the project was strategic interventions to enhance women’s capacity and agency within political, civic and mediation space following the December 2020 mid-term senatorial elections and the Constitutional referendum, and at the same time working towards the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
The initiative is a flagship program of the Women’s Situation Room (WSR) under the project title, “Sustainable and Inclusive Peace in Liberia through Promoting Women Leadership and Participation in Civic and Political Life and their Strengthened Role in Conflict Resolution”.
Reading the report at a local hotel in Monrovia on Thursday, August 25, 2022, the Establishment Coordinator of the Angie Brooks International Centre, Cllr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh, said that they commenced the project with one goal in mind: to put the interest of the peace in the 20 communities above all else.
She noted that this mantra ensured that the project gained the requisite local support from leaders all the way to the ordinary residents, because the issue it brought to bear was and still a timely one.
“ABIC trained 400 women and youth training-of-trainers in mediation, conflict resolution and negotiation; convened 10 women-led mediation dialogue for under the broad themes of electoral violence, monetization of elections, abuse and politicization of traditional norms and value, polarization of the media, understanding the democratic ideology of election and abuse of narcotics as a national emergency issues,” she said.
Continuing, Dr. Chesson-Wureh said they also worked with hundreds of community-based interventions through peer-to-peer peace engagement and the novel WSR Mediation Mobile Clinic; peace march with more than 2,000 women to demand and create their own visible seats at the decision-making table and the “Lead From Where You Sit” series of training activities by the WSR eminent women.
According to her, these extensive engagements have generated significant early warning signs of violence, which need continued intervention through multi-stakeholder concerted effort to ensure peace before, during and after the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
Cllr. Chesson-Wureh further indicated that, based on the fragility of the safety and security issues brooding from the communities all the way up to the national level, the eminent women of the WSR are registering their strong and unqualified opposition to election violence and insecurity in the country.
“Violence against women in elections and the lack of access to peaceful participation of women of diverse occupation in elections keep dwindling. Women participate in elections as aspirants, candidates, voters, security officers, election commission officers, political party supporters, polling center agents, media personnel and floating voters,” she stated.
These different levels of political participation, according to Chesson-Wureh, come with different level of violence targeted at women in elections, ranging from gender and sexual-based violence, verbal abuse, physical violence, to emotional and psychological abuse.
Speaking further, she lamented that in this age of the internet and social media, there are online harassments, fake news and misinformation, mentioning that when the political atmosphere continues to give rise to the unfavorable conditions for women to take part in elections, it is simply an affront to their Constitutional right to freedom of association in a manner that grossly undermine the core of democracy.