More than 17 Liberian journalists have begun brainstorming on sexual Gender Based Violence at the start of a three-day workshop held by the Liberia Media Center in collaboration with the Journalists for Human Rights with support from United Nations women.

Speaking at the start, the president of the Journalist For Human Rights, Lawrence Fahnbulleh said that journalists should play an important role in addressing the issues of SGBV in the country.

He said in the last days, crimes against women had been one of the factors around the world, women has been molested, chased and raped by men.

Giving some statistics about SGBV related issues; Fahnbulleh recalled that a survey conducted in collaboration with MOGD reveals that progress made towards the fight of SGBV has been 85 percent with1, 687 occurrences reported between January and September 2012.

Fahnbulleh added that 1,232 or 73 percent of SGBV survivors are children between ages of three and seventeen with Montserrado and Bong Counties among the highest.

He narrated that the reporting of domestic violence is as low as 19.7 percent of the total number of sexual gender based violence cases reported.

"Let me to state clear, that the continue settlement of rape cases by parents and family members out of court does not only undermine the legal justice system of Liberia, but has the propensity to damage the brighter future of those children been abused by unscrupulous people" Fahnbulleh said.

He explained that in the month of October, there were 16 rape cases recorded; six of those cases were reported in Monrovia, six in Gbarnga, and one each in Fish Town Harbel, Toe town and Zwedru.

However, he said that a total number of 11 suspects have been arrested in connection with these cases.

He describes the acts to be troubling to noting that six of those victims were below 10 years of age.