Liberia, UN Mission to Hold Anti-rape Concert Saturday

The Liberian govenment in collaboration with the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), will Saturday hold an anti-rape concert in Monrovia. The concert to be held at the refurbished Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex, will attract musical and movie stars from Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, as well as local artists.

Disclosing this Wednesday, Deputy Information Minister Gabriel Willaiams disclosed that rape is on the increase in Liberia, despite the passage of a law that prescribes life-imprisonment for statutory rape.

He said 190 rape cases were reported over the past two months.

Also speaking at the ceremony, UNMIL Officer-In-Charge, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, challenged all Liberians,irrespective of sex or class, to stand up against rape which will shortly be declared as ’crime against humanity by the UN General Assembly.

The Liberian Government and UNMIL officially kicked-off the Stop Rape Campaign in Monrovia in November 2007 and since then, a county-by-county campaign, characterized by musical concerts, sporting events, road shows, live street screening of anti-rape movies, parades, and other activities, has been taken to ten provincial capitals around Liberia.

Students, women and youth groups, community, traditional and religious leaders, senior county officials and ordinary Liberians have been involved in this effort to stamp out Rape from Liberia.

According to the UNMIL officer-in-charge, a key objective of this campaign is to stop and prevent rapes and to deter perpetrators, especially men, from this crime. The concern also aims to garner the involvement of every member of society against all forms of sexual and gender-based violence.

Source African Press Agency

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