Student Voices: Defining Rape in Liberia
Liberia has been at war for nearly two decades....and the most significant casualty of the violent civil war has been the legal system, founded on common law tradition. Due to the physical destruction of valuable documents, including statutes and court decisions, the judiciary cannot utilize what would otherwise be its greatest tool for sustaining the rule of law: precedent. This situation severely threatens the consistency and reliability of the law within Liberia.
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I was instructed to draft an amendment to the definition of Sexual Harassment in the Code of Conduct for all Public Servants for the Republic of Liberia. However, instead of confining research to the Penal Code's sections dealing with rape, I had to broaden my the scope to include international legal sources: definitions from African nations, the European Union, the United Nations, as well as the United States. ---- Adrienne Lester, Summer Intern at the Honorable House of Representatives for the Republic of Liberia. |
