UN committed to end sexual and gender based violence in Liberia, stresses envoy

The United Nations envoy to Liberia has underscored the world body’s commitment to working with the Government to end sexual and gender-based crimes at the opening of a new police unit tasked with investigating such violent offences.

In her remarks, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Liberia, Ellen Margrethe Løj, commended the country’s Ministry of Justice for its initiative in establishing the sexual and gender-based violent crime unit.

Ms. Løj also expressed hope that funding would soon be secured so that the recently opened Criminal Court ‘E’ could become operational to try cases referred from the new unit.

“We have supported these efforts in the past and I want to assure you that we will continue to support Government programmes that are designed to put an end to sexual and gender-based violence,” said Ms. Løj.

Representatives of UN agencies, including the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as a number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), also pledged their support to ensure that the unit was fully operational.