Her Voice says in order to fight sexual and gender-based violence particularly rape, the system needs to be strengthened beginning with empowering of the Liberian National Police to speedily and properly investigate reports of rape cases, charge the alleged perpetrators and send them to Court. Her Voice also wants the rape law amended to have strict lifetime imprisonment sentence for adult perpetrators who rape children that are less than eleven years old. Although rape in general is cruel, the impact of rape on minors is so grave, and the sentence for adults who rape minors should be hasher. The Human rights organization says a well-structured, strong and strengthened system can more effectively fight rape and other sexual related offenses than a capital punishment. According to the group, Capital punishment is prohibited by several international protocols and conventions to which Liberia is a signatory, and execution of death penalties could send bad signals of the country to the international community.

Source: Front Page Africa August 28, 2020 07:29 UTC