Afghanistan and Liberia: Why One Failed While One Thrives

On December 5th, 2001, shortly after the final surrender of Taliban fighters four main Afghani political groups signed a power sharing treaty, in an effort to form a stable post-Taliban government. However, in the past twelve years little has been done to resolve the wide-spread violence and conflict in Afghanistan. As UN, NATO, and US forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, the country relapses into former Taliban ways and crime escalates dramatically. In fact the rate of violent crimes against women is the highest in years1. Despite laws placed to protect women, brutal attacks, rapes, and even murders go completely unreported or un-dealt with. "Killing women in Afghanistan is an easy thing. There's no punishment," Suraya Pakzad, a women’s rights representative, told Reuters magazine2.

Meanwhile, Liberia, a country once wrecked by a bloody civil war and breaches of human rights, has taken responsibility for it’s own reform and is in the process of improving it’s security sector and level-of-life. In 2013, the Ibrahim Index of African Governance named Liberia the most improved country on the continent in terms of safety and rule of law3.

So what separates Afghanistan from Liberia? Why has one ignored human rights and fallen behind on reform processes while the other has greatly improved level-of-life and security? Both countries have experienced extreme human rights violations -- especially sexualized violence against women. But why has Liberia resolved the issues whereas Afghanistan has largely ignored them?

In part, we have foreign powers to blame. Instead of working together with each other and the people of Afghanistan, western countries simply divided the running of the country into different parts with the US on mil...

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...an’s development.”17.

If Afghanistan wants to achieve the level of security sector reform that Liberia has, they will have to change many aspects of their security sector. First, Afghanistan will have to take responsibility for it’s own reform process. For the most part, the changes in the past twelve years have been mostly led by foreign countries. If Afghanistan wants to maintain security when these countries evacuate, it will have to take responsibility -- and quickly. Second, Afghanistan has to change the way they view women. Many westerners say that the treatment of women is a cultural and religious thing and should stay as it was, but that is simply not acceptable and not even true. If Afghanistan wants to lower the rates of crime against women they need to retrain their police force and to incorporate more women into the police.