Of the 658 rape victims treated since the end of the war at the capital's main rape clinic, more than half were under 12 and 85 percent were under 18, according to Medecins sans Frontieres, which runs the hospital. Several babies have been treated for rape.
Despite these figures and the line of women that forms outside the rape clinic every morning, only five convicted rapists are serving sentences in Monrovia's central prison. . . .
Liberia has just 22 judges . . . Because Liberia's penal code has been out of print since the 1950s, judges rely on blurred photocopies of the statutes. . . .
Billboards throughout the capital now warn that rape is illegal by showing two stick figures, one forcing itself on the other - the scene crossed out by a large X.
When Liberia, a nation of 3 million, began its descent into civil war in 1989, rape quickly became a weapon. Before killing villagers, the rebels gang-raped girls and took them as "wives" to service multiple commanders. Thousands of rapes went unprosecuted.
Tough new laws were passed at the end of 2005, but cases are still working their way through the system and the system is still broken.