Guest Author - Aisling Ireland Sierra Leone is still a country
where egregious violations of human rights occur, despite the
fact that the civil war that ravaged the country for a decade
ended officially in 2002. The country still struggles to gain
political stability, but is still plagued by the atrocities of
the civil that manifest in continuing abuses of women - women
who suffer from genital mutilation, rape, and domestic violence.
The entire country suffers from extreme poverty which keeps the
country in turmoil. To understand Sierra Leone's precarious
position, it is necessary to look at some of the background of
the civil war that contributed to the country's destabilization
and one of the issues that started the war - diamonds. In Sierra
Leone, diamonds are far from a girl's best friend. In fact,
diamonds are one reason that women were systematically raped as
a form of torture in Sierra Leone. They were another reason that
both men and women had limbs amputated and/or were beheaded in
the civil war tha