The Constitution of Liberia prohibits discrimination; however, there are no specific laws against gender-based discrimination or discrimination based on ethnicity and both are still evident. In 2001, the government created a Ministry for Gender and Development. In 2005, Liberia became the first African country to elect a woman, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, as president.
The position of women in Liberia varies according to region, ethnic group and religion. Customary (traditional) laws are a major contributing factor to inequality: women who are married according to customary law are considered to be legal minors. The civil war that ravaged Liberia has had grave consequences for women.
Liberia’s Family Code grants very few rights to women. The new law on family relationships sets the minimum legal age for marriage at 18 years for women and 21 years for men. In reality, the custom of early marriage is very widespread, especially in rural areas, where girls marry from the age of just 12 or 13 years. A 2004 United Nations report estimated that 36 per cent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed. There has been a slight increase in the average age of first marriage in Liberia.
Liberia’s civil law prohibits polygamy but customary law allows men to have several wives; more than one-third of married women between 15 and 49 years of age live in polygamous marriages.
According to customary law, married women have no right to parental authority. In fact, if a woman’s husband dies, she has no right to custody of their children. The government passed a new civil law recognising shared child custody, but in the matter of parental responsibility it appears that discrimination against women persists.
Under Liberia’s civil law on inheritance, married women can inherit land and property. By contrast, women married under customary law cannot inherit from their spouses. There is no information available on the inheritance rights of daughters.
Women’s physical integrity is not sufficiently protected in Liberia. Violence against women is common and no serious consideration is given to victims by the authorities, the justice system or the media. Liberian law prohibits domestic violence, but to date no offender has received any sentence beyond six months in prison. In 2006, the government promulgated a new law that broadens the definition of rape and recognises spousal rape as a crime. Rape is now punishable by law, but as yet the authorities are not in a position to apply the legislation. Women have paid a high price in the civil conflicts in Liberia, during which rape was used extensively as a weapon of war.
There is no law prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM) in Liberia. The practice is, in fact, quite common particularly among ethnic groups in the north, west and centre of the country, and more generally in rural areas. The civil war destabilised life in the villages and led to a decrease in FGM at the end of the 1990s, but the practice resurfaced recently in many communities. About half of Liberia’s female population has been subjected to FGM.
Liberia does not appear to be a country of concern in relation to missing women.
Liberian legislation grants equal ownership rights to men and women, but discrimination based on tradition persists. The law provides men and women with the same rights regarding access to land, access to property other than land and access to bank loans. In practice, there is significant discrimination against women, particularly when they have married under customary law.
Liberian women’s civil liberties are guaranteed by law, but have been severely restricted as a result of the civil war, which led to widespread population movement. Women and children comprise the majority of displaced people living in refugee camps.
Aside from this situation of vulnerability, there are no reported restrictions on women’s freedom of movement or freedom of dress.
Afrol News (n.d.), Gender Profile: Liberia, www.afrol.com/Categories/Women/profiles/liberia_women.htm, accessed February 2008.
Assani, A. (2000), Étude sur les mariages précoces et grossesses précoces au Burkina-Faso, Cameroun, Gambie, Liberia, Niger et Tchad, UNICEF West Central Africa Regional Office, Abidjan.
CRC (Committee on the Rights of the Child) (2004), Examen des rapports présentés par les Etats parties en application de l’article 44 de la convention. Observations finales du comité des droits de l’enfant: Libéria, CRC/C/15/Add.236, CRC, New York, NY.
ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) (2003), Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Violence Against Women, E/CN.4/2003/75/Add.1, UN, New York, NY.
Struensee, V. von (2005), “The Contribution of Polygamy to Women’s Oppression and Impoverishment: An Argument for its Prohibition”, Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Murdoch, www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MurUEJL/2005/2.html#fn100.
Swiss, S., Jennings, P. and G.V. Aryee (1998), “Violence Against Women During the Liberian Civil Conflict”, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 279, No. 8, American Medical Association, Chicago, pp. 625-629.
UN (United Nations) (2004), World Fertility Report 2003, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, New York, NY.
UN (2006), World Population Prospects, Population Database, UN Population division, New York, NY.
UN (2007), Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 entitled ‘Human Rights Council’, Report of the Independent Expert on Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services in Liberia, Charlotte Abaka, A/HRC/4/6, UN, New York, NY.
US Department of State (2007a), Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Liberia, US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Washington, DC.
US Department of State (2007b), International Religious Freedom Report, Liberia, US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Washington, DC.
