Policy Brief 1 · 2009 The Protection of Women and Children in Liberia Benjamin de Carvalho and Niels Nagelhus Schia In spite of the efforts made by international actors to Summary have the Liberian National Police’s (LNP) Women and After six years of UN presence, women and children Children Protection Section (WACPS) working to pro- still lack the protection they have been promised. vide women and children with a special recourse to Through a grant of USD 1.6 million from the Norwe- justice institutions, a number of challenges remain gian Government administered through UNDP, the unaddressed. Many of these challenges are also a prod- Liberian National Police (LNP) has now been able uct of how these sections were established and funded, to establish Women and Children Protection Sec- the lack of a coherent and comprehensive understand- tions (WACPS) in over twenty locations in Liberia. ing of the functioning of justice institutions in Libe- These sections are meant to address the protection ria, the challenges reforming or building these insti- of women and children, especially against gender- tutions represent, and how these new institutions are based violence (GBV), including sexual violence. to interact with traditional institutions and practices. While having been recognized from the UN as repre- senting a landmark effort, these sections neverthe- In September 2005, UNICEF proudly announced that less do not function as intended. There is a dire lack 25 officers of the LNP had completed their certifica- of resources for running these sections. Furthermore, tion in “women and children protection” and were GBV is not addressed in a comprehensive manner. to staff the newly established WACPS of the LNP. Thus, police officers involved in the WACPS, in spite of This had been established by UNICEF in collabora- often being well-trained, willing and qualified, often go through the motions rather than addressing the tion with the LNP and the United Nations Mission substantive challenges facing women and children. in Liberia (UNMIL) Civilian Police (CIVPOL). These police officers had been given training in order to Rather than providing aid for relatively limited and “improve their skills and techniques in managing isolated projects, we make the case for the inter- and handling sexual violence cases” (UNICEF 2005). national community and donors to address GBV within a wider and more comprehensive frame- Three years later, there is a WACPS of the LNP work including all Rule of Law institutions, rather in every county capital in Liberia (fifteen in total). 1 than focusing on short-term issues and rapid im- DSRSG Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, has touted the suc- pact projects which fit within the relatively narrow cess of the WACPS and stated that “more and more priorities of Western governments. Furthermore, women and children are coming out to report crimes” we argue that addressing GBV effectively cannot be undertaken without understanding how “mod- Throughout the entire country, new LNP county head- ern” and traditional systems of justice function and quarters have been constructed or renovated by UNDP interplay. As stated by one interviewee in Monro- with funding from the Norwegian government. In or- via, “The problem in Liberia is not that victims of der to assist the LNP in addressing issues affecting rape don’t get justice, but that no one gets justice!” women and children, all new LNP buildings now have a WACPS. A representative of the Norwegian govern- Policy Brief 1 · 2009 ment stated that the construction of WACPS is “a important task, it also fits within the Scandinavian pri- dream come true.” UNMIL can now proudly confirm orities, and is therefore an attractive way to contribute. that “WACPS are now active in 21 locations throughout Liberia” thanks to a contribution of USD 1.6 million Not all police county headquarters have separate from the Norwegian government (UNMIL 2008a) (the buildings for the WACPS. In some police stations biggest WACPS is yet to be constructed, adjacent to the the WACPS consists simply of one room dedicated LNP national headquarters in Monrovia). UN Police to women and children protection (such as the one Commissioner Henrik Stiernblad proudly stated that in Robertsport), in which the officers dedicated to “Women and children need not be subjected to further this work supposedly have their working space. This victimization.” (UNMIL 2008c). Finally, the Special is however not necessarily the case. These rooms Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Ellen are in practice used for different purposes, includ- Margrethe Løj praised the Norwegian effort for under- ing in some instances providing accommodation standing that “the recovery and development of Libe- for police officers undertaking training programs. ria’s rule of law institutions requires an additional bol- ster to both human and financial resources” (UNMIL Other WACPS are more impressive. In Tubman- 2008d; Norwegian Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire 2008). burg, for instance, the WACPS is more imposing and modern than the main police station, and employs In spite of these efforts, however, UNMIL has about half of the police officers in the city. Their fa- been forced to recognize the fact that “sexual vio- cilities are more modern than the main police sta- lence against women and children remains a cen- tion, including two PCs stacked on a dusty shelf. tral reality of life in Liberia” (UNMIL 2008b): Police in Bomi County was reported to have one ve- hicle and two motorcycles. Here too, rooms in the “[…] reported rate of rape cases remains the same during WACPS were used for accommodating police officers. the year – on average 54 reported cases per month coun- trywide. Only during this year Women and Children Pro- The Lack of Coherence and Comprehensiveness tection Section of UNICEF handled 2,352 cases of which The WACPS were established with the intention of ad- 707 were Gender Based Violence (GBV) including sexu- dressing the pressing concerns the international com- al violence. Out of the 707 cases, 272 were sent to court, munity had with GBV in Liberia. That women and 235 pending and 200 cases withdrawn. 124 survivors of children now have a dedicated section within the LNP sexual violence 0-35 years of age (3 boys, 116 girls and which deals with GBV no doubt will ensure that these 5 women) accessed psychosocial care, protection and issues are addressed by the police. The question which medical services at the two Safe Homes. 98 were reinte- nevertheless remain, is what happens once a crime is grated into their families and communities, 26 are cur- reported to WACPS. For instance, one of the issues the rently receiving services at the Safe Home, established establishment of WACPS was meant to address is the by UNICEF for sexually violated girls.” (UNMIL 2008b) relatively high degree of impunity for GBV crimes. But as a legal specialist interviewed in Monrovia exclaimed These figures we are talking about here are limited to to us, “The problem in Liberia is not that victims of reported cases. rape don’t get justice, but that no one gets justice!” Addressing Gender-based Violence (GBV) in Liberia In a country where judges in many cases do not have During fieldwork in 2008 and 2009, we visited four knowledge of the penal code, and where the police only WACPS in four different counties in Liberia. Based on rarely possess investigative tools and skills, it is doubt- this, it is clear that while the WACPS may be a right step, ful whether the establishment of the WACPS alone will not only do challenges remain, but the establishment of lead to a higher rate of conviction. Furthermore, the such a specialized unit without taking other rule of law in- problems may be exacerbated by the fact that victims 2 stitutions into account may in turn lead to new problems. who do report crimes lose faith in the institutions of justice, as reported criminals seldom face convictions. The problems surrounding the WACPS are in many ways symptomatic of the way in which post-conflict re- The problem here is that specific donor programs wish construction is managed by international donors and to address specific issues which may be in line with the UN in general, namely that there is lack of coher- priorities in the donor country rather than with a spe- ence, no comprehensive and deep understanding of cific coherent and comprehensive approach to judicial how the issues sought addressed relate to each other, reform. Furthermore, while the institutions of rule of and an undue channelling of resources into projects that law are to some degree present in Monrovia, they of- fit with the donors’ perspective rather than the needs ten lack outside of the capital. As one NGO worker of the community. Sexual and gender-based violence, involved in GBV work explained, “No place outside of the protection of women and children is no doubt an Monrovia has all the pieces of rule of law”. The major international presence in Liberia is in Monrovia, and crimes end up in the “Kept In View” category (KIV). as such inferences about the spread of rule of law in- stitutions in general, and the WACPS in particular to The logistics provided to the LNP as part of providing the whole country must be done carefully – if at all. for the WACPS include PCs and electric generators. However, computer literacy is often limited, and the Why and How Report to the Police? generators require fuel which is used for driving. The As the WACPS are based mainly in county capitals, re- dire lack of resources to actually go and investigate porting crimes which have taken place in other places crimes seems to be a much more pressing affair than is an enormous challenge for victims of SGBV.