Defend the Rights and Privileges of Women and Girls

ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND

XXX is a community-based organization based in XX, XX, and founded in 2008 to work towards promoting and protecting the rights of indigent women in the county, particularly the XXX. The birth of the organization was necessitated by the dire need to address problems of inequality, marginalization, abuse and discrimination which the women and girls face in the hands of the male-dominated society. It is a forum, an anchor point and motivator of women and girls who have no touch with human rights issues and who are victims of exploitation and abuse.

The organization is owned and managed by women who are headed by an Executive Director. It is structured as follows: The Board of Directors comprising 11 prominent women, citizens of XX both in and out the province. The board is the highest decision-making body. The Executive Board headed by the Executive Director, who is also secretary of the Board, manages or runs the daily activities of the organization.

The goals of the organization are as follows:

1. 1. To fight for, promote and defend the rights and privileges of women, girls and children in Liberia as a whole.
   2. To create a level-playing field in which rural women, particularly those of Kpaai District will have a say in community decision-making processes.
   3. To train and empower women and girls become useful citizens

Key activities of the organization:

• • Organize training programs to build the intellectual, technical and educational capacities of women and women groups as well as for girls
  • Provide logistical support to women groups that have little or no external support
  • Conduct research to uncover and report violations and abuse faced by women and girls
  • Organize campaigns that promote the cause of women and children and seek state-actors’ intervention and/or remedy

PROJECT BACKGROUND

This project grows out of the urgency triggered by the rampancy of abuses and exploitation being meted out against women and girls in X. Sixteen yearXs of civil conflict in XX ended 2003 and it left serious social problems as a major legacy. Violent crimes, corrupt social system and discrimination and injustice are unabated. More so, Liberia’s social tradition is pro-male and less favourable to women. The situation has hardly changed and women continue to face discrimination and abuse often without remedy. At various police depots and details around XX, starling reports of physical, mental and social torments against women and girls have increased since the civil conflict and even in spite of fact that XX broke history with the election of XX first female President. The situation is so alarming that when she recently visited Bong County to dedicate public projects, XX called for expeditious prosecution of cases bordering domestic violence and abuses against women and for the need for concerted efforts by women to collectively depend their rights. Some conditions of abuses against women and girls contained in various reports of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Liberia National Police and human rights organizations include: rape, physical assaults, extortion, forced marriage, sexual harassment, etc. Joint “Crime Report” released by UNMIL and the LNP this year alone put crimes and/violations of the rights of women at 60% of total criminal incidents in the country, and XX was named second to Monrovia when it comes to such crimes and violations against women. In its report covering last year on the human rights conditions in Liberia as it relates to women and girls, the US State Department states that there were “…violence against women, including rape, and widespread domestic violence; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse and sexual violence against children; human trafficking; continued racial and ethnic discrimination; and child labour.”

Specifically, the XX women are hard hit. The Liberian civil conflict was particularly cruel to XX, parts of which were contested by multiple militias over fourteen years, resulting in massive losses of life and egregious human rights abuses, especially perpetrated against women and girls. There has not been much improvement in human rights conditions facing women of the county. The existing corrections facilities in the County are very poor, and Corrections staff capacity is low, leading to bribery, human rights violations, and “escapes” of detainees. Crowning the situation is traditional practices that not only rob women of the county their basic rights, but subject to cruelty and denials.

Various human rights reports produced by government agencies, civil society and the media are unanimous in their findings that rural women, including those XX, suffer various abuses that include: sexual harassment and exploitation; subjection to genital mutilation, ten age pregnancy, denial of rights to marital property, including land; denial of educational/parental support; exclusion from civic participation, amongst others.

The project is intended to build the capacity of women and women groups in Bong County by organizing a series of activities that include: training participants in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting; setting up a mini-resource centre to support the clerical and fund-raising program of target participants; conduct massive awareness and sensitization forums; and release reports of human rights abuses researched and monitored during the course of the project.

JUSTIFICATION

Though there have been some efforts by Government and non-state actors in XX to address the waves of domestic violence and crimes and abuses against women, there are still serious challenges to meet. One of such challenges is deep-rooted civic apathy among women, the victims, and the general lack of knowledge and capacity to rise up to hordes of vexing social problems facing them. As a result of works being done in various communities involving women and girls, we have found that most women and girls in the target communities don’t know that they are entitled to certain rights and privileges; they are not aware that conditions of abuses and marginalization they face are not natural and that they have right to resist them; that they don’t know that they have right to raise alarms and report abuses and entitled to recourse and justice. And where some demonstrate little awareness, they lack the technical knowhow and minimum material capacity to organize themselves better and engage in activities that address their plights.

Many attempts in the past, and even in the present, to uphold and defend the rights of rural women in Liberia, specifically those of XX, have hardly mainstreamed women and girls in their intervention efforts. This has created a dependency problem for the women, and makes the impact of the interventions less sustainable. In order to measure up to the magnitude of human rights problems facing rural women, the women themselves must be made to pick up the torch and be direct participants in efforts meant to benefit them.  They must be capacitated to be directly and actively involved not only to research issues that concern them, but in reporting and discussing with other stakeholders to find remedies.

PROJECT GOAL AND INDICATORS OF ACHIEVEMENT

PROJECT RESULT AND INDICATORS OF ACHIEVEMENT

LIST OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES

RISKS AND REMEDIAL ACTION

STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES

The project will be managed by XXX staff as follows:

• • The Executive Director of XXX will provide general support and supervision to the project. She shall sign the grant agreement and also serve as focal person of the organization to NHRF.
  • Project Management, who will take full responsibility for the execution of the work plan of the project and carry out professional reporting as many be required by the Management of XX and the donor.
  • Finance Officer will manage the funds and material intended for the project and shall provide financial report on the regular basis for the Management of XX
  • Research Officer will take care of required research and training activities of the project.
  • Field Monitors will be involved in field work required by the project.

COMPETENCE AND EXPERIENCE

XX comprises visionary board members of national and international repute and a management team of top-notch human rights activists. Most members of the management team if not all hold university degrees in varying disciplines.

As already stated, the organization has implemented projects promoting human rights, particularly the rights of women and children.

For instance, working on a grant provided by an American Philanthropist, XX was able to:

• • Train 150 women and girls in human rights investigation and reporting skills
  • Produce quality reports on findings and recommendations of investigations conducted
  • Engage several local authority and officials of government on the human rights conditions facing women of Liberia

Secondly, as a current grantee of the World Food Program, XX was to:

• • Conduct human rights awareness and propagate linkages between socioeconomic rights and peace
  • Print and disseminate human rights messages to several communities and organizations
  • Develop toolkit for project monitors and animators