Source: Citizen Kenya
When Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was elected as Africa’s first female Head of State in 2005, expectations were high. Throughout both her terms as president, she has talked about her firm commitment to women’s rights, coming out strongly in particular in favour of the health and safety of women and girls.

Last year, at an international event on gender equality, President Johnson-Sirleaf publicly stated that “too many of our countries have yet to muster the courage to ban the irreparable harm inflicted by genital mutilation on young girls in traditional societies”. It was a rather controversial statement at the time, as Liberia itself is one of those states which has yet to do so – a country, where, according to UNICEF,49.8% of women and girls are estimated to have undergone this extreme form of violence.

Following bans last year in Nigeria and The Gambia, Liberia is now one of only three countries in Western Africa, which have yet to ban FGM – only Mali and Sierra Leone need to follow suit.

In both Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Sande female secret society promotes and carries out FGM as part of an initiation rite into womanhood. FGM is a taboo subject and it is forbidden to talk about secret societies and their practices with “non-initiated” people.

Punishment for such violations includes physical abuse, forceful initiation and death threats – something which Ruth Berry Peal has faced for years after standing up against it.

The country’s media has been effectively silenced on the issue too – and the lives of brave journalists who speak out are put at risk. Mae Azango was forced into hiding in 2012 for writing about the issue in Front Page Africa.

Things appeared to be changing in mid-2015, when in response to many years of international and national pressure, a domestic violence bill was finally introduced in Liberia to strengthen legislation on various forms of violence against women and girls – including, for the first time, a ban on FGM.

The proposed measures on the latter wereextremely weak. The bill only regarded FGM as an offence in situations where it is performed on a person under the age of 18 – or a person 18 years old or over, without their supposed consent. This would effectively provide a legal loophole for parents or legal guardians to grant “consent” on behalf of their daughters, leaving those most at risk unprotected. They also included ineffective penalties for perpetrators, where counselling and fines could be arbitrarily determined by a judge.

Equality Now and local partner, the Women of Liberia Peace Network (WOLPNET), with funding from Comic Relief, have been working to ensure that a total ban on FGM is included in the bill instead – as required by the Maputo Protocol, the African women’s rights legal framework, which Liberia has ratified.

Earlier this week, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse though as Liberian legislators decided to delete the FGM provision entirely. A debate will now be held tomorrow, April 28th, on the bill in its current state. As this provision was the only controversial measure, it is possible that the domestic violence bill will now pass without any mention of FGM at all.

At a time when the Africa-led momentum to end FGM is growing, it is vital that we do not lose the opportunity to continue to protect more girls and women from this huge

violation of their rights. Unlike neighbouring countries such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, Liberia has already managed to significantly reduce FGM prevalence from 85% for middle-aged women to 44% for girls aged 15-19. However, unless tough legislation is enacted and properly implemented, it may be difficult to accelerate this change and the lives and well-being of millions more girls will be put at risk.

President Johnson-Sirleaf is particularly well positioned to “muster the courage” herself to do what is necessary to ensure that Liberia bans FGM – either as part of the current domestic violence bill – or as a standalone bill – as a matter of urgency. There has been too much discussion and not enough action. Liberia cannot afford to keep making international statements to media and the global community to make it seem like they are doing something, without following through and putting real measures in place, which promote and protect the rights of its girls at home.