Prometheus 6

WEST AFRICA: PEACE PROSPECTS PULLING REFUGEES HOME

After years of civil war, thousands of West Africa's refugees are now streaming home through a recently-opened route between western Liberia and southern Sierra Leone to embrace peace prospects in their homelands. At a meeting on voluntary repatriation and sustainable reintegration in Africa earlier this week, UNHCR identified Liberia and Sierra Leone as two West African countries where large-scale refugee returns have been or could soon be taking place, in view of ongoing peace initiatives.

Many of the tens of millions of people who have been displaced from their homes are women fleeing oppressive norms and violence. Some are women who may have opposed their oppression and stood up to the state, society, their husband or their relatives. Some are women whose only "wrongful" act was to have sex outside marriage or who have been raped. Some are women who have insisted on their right to choose for themselves which man or woman to love. Some are women who, consciously or unconsciously, through their actions or words, have transgressed social mores and therefore fear punishment from the state, from their communities or their families.