Rescue Alternatives Liberia (RAL), a nongovernmental human rights organization says it is concerned over repeated calls for death penalty against perpetrators of rape in Liberia.
RAL as a reputable human rights organization says it is strongly shocked and baffled over the rise in rape cases across Liberia against boys, girls and women, but says it doesn’t think death penalty is the right solution for such devilish act permeating the society with such alarming rate.
“We are equally aware of the devastating effect of rape on boys who are also sodomized, girls and women who are rape by those devils calling themselves men, but we believe there are lots of solutions available to curtailing such act rather than the death penalty,” RAL said in a release issued in Monrovia on Wednesday August 26, 2020.
The release further said “We need to strengthen our judicial system through logistical and monetary means by fast-tracking rape cases, setup DNA machines, and ensure maximum life sentence for perpetrators to serve as deterrence rather than death penalty as being recommended by prominent and ordinary Liberians.”
The organization is reminding those calling for the Death Penalty or capital punishment to do away with such thought because Liberia has since acceded to international treaties to abolish the death penalty.
“RAL calls on the Government of Liberia to repeal the clause within the Penal Code that talks about the death penalty. We want to further remind the Liberian Government that the country had acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which calls for the abolition of the death penalty in 2005,” the organization appealed in a release.
The organization further added “We are concerned that despite advocacy and lobbying with the National Legislature and other relevant government institutions for the repeal of the 2008 law that allows the death penalty, practical action is yet to be taken by the government of Liberia that will lead to its abolition.”
“It is now time that we remind ourselves that death penalty has no place in the 21st century because some 170 member states of the United Nations including Liberia with a variety of legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds, have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it,” the release concluded.
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