The Rape of Dinah: Human Rights, Civil War in Liberia, and Evil Triumphant

This article examines the human rights atrocities that took place during the Liberian civil war from 1990 to 1997. The article includes a section about systematic rape of women as a means of instilling terror in civilian populations. In addition to detailing human rights abuses, the author also examines the international attention that the situation attracted, how this compared with similar situations occurring in Yugoslavia, and how international institutions reacted to this tragedy. The author concludes with a question about the universalism of human rights given that the United Nations took no action on the war crimes in Liberia. [Descriptors: Armed Conflict, International - Africa]