A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

ecognition. 393
• The Government of Liberia should ensure that women in traditional marriages not
recognized by formal legal systems are guaranteed equality with men in the family and
a share of earnings and property. 395 The Government of Liberia should ensure that laws
protect and enforce a woman’s right to choose when, if, and whom she will marry. 396
• The Government of Liberia should take appropriate measures to ensure the enjoyment by
rural women of the rights under the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, specifically ensuring their right to:
o participate in the elaboration and implementation of development planning at all
levels;
o have access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counseling and
services in family planning;
o benefit directly from social security programs;
o obtain all types of training and education, formal and non-formal, including
functional literacy, as well as, inter alia, the benefit of all community and extension
services, in order to increase their technical proficiency;
o organize self-help groups and co-operatives in order to obtain equal access to
economic opportunities through employment or self employment; and
o have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities, appropriate
technology, and equal treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as in land
resettlement schemes.
Potential Implementation Strategy: Diesel-powered Multifunctional Platforms
Rural women suffer a tremendous burden with respect to fuel collection – in terms of time, health,
safety, and other issues. In Mali, the UN Industrial Development Organization and the International
Fund for Agricultural Development developed diesel-powered multifunctional platforms to reduce the
burdens on rural women. 397 The platforms included a diesel engine that supplied power that assisted
with labor-intensive work such as agricultural processing, welding, water pumping, and electricity. 398
The Government of Liberia may want to consider implementing similar labor-saving energy services/
devices to help reduce the onus of acquiring fuel. Additionally, the program in Mali further advanced
women’s rights by involving women in the design, management, and implementation of the project of
establishing the platform. 399 Such involvement placed women in decision-making positions and allowed
them to give input on the project.
Women’s Human Rights: Access to Equal Protection of the Law, Justice, and Right to a
Remedy
In order to ensure true equality for women in Liberia, women must stand equal before the law. 400 The
474