By William Selmah, selmahwm1015@yahoo.com
Liberian and International Human Rights organizations have highlighted what they see as credible threats against key human rights defenders in Liberia.
The threats are directed at the Global Justice Research Project (GJRP) as well as to witnesses of alleged crimes by a defendant of a war crimes unit in the United Kingdom.
“Credible threats have also been made against the Secretary General of the Civil Society Advocacy Platform Adama K. Dempster in connection to his human rights work advocating for a war crimes court.
The organizations flagging the threats include Human Rights Watch, center for Justice and Accountability, Center for Civil and Political Rights and Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform.
Others are Civitas Maxima, Independent Human Rights Investigators, and Advocates for human rights defenders.
They said in the joint statement issued this week that the Liberian government has an obligation to protect human rights defenders.
“The intimidation and threats against GJRP staff and witnesses started immediately after Agnes Reeves Taylor who was indicted in 2017 in the UK for torture returned to Liberia in July 2020. They include multiple threatening phone calls to GJRP staff including the director Hassan Bility as well as witnesses of her alleged war crimes. Several witnesses have said that those claiming to be Reeves Taylor’s supporters have threatened their lives – including in person,” the statement said.
The rights groups also said that certain statements made by Dr. Reeves Taylor about Bility raises concern. They said she was not acquitted but that her case did not go to trial based on what they termed “point of law”.
Meanwhile, the local and international rights groups have reminded Liberia of the UN Human Rights Committee’s Concluding Observation issued in 2018, which requires that Liberia makes certain that “all alleged perpetrators of human rights violations and war crimes are impartially prosecuted and if convicted, punished in accordance with the gravity of the acts committed”.
Among other things, the Human Rights Committee’s Observation requires that “Liberia reports by July 27, 2020 on the implementation of the recommendations regarding accountability for past crimes. Liberia is yet to meet that deadline.”
The group said that Dempster, who led the civil society delegation to Geneva to report to the UN on Liberia’s human rights record, has also received credible information that he’s on target for elimination.
According to the rights groups’ statement, the threats come from “certain leading figures within the Liberian government’s security services and confidential sources that they are related to Dempster’s work on delivering human rights reports to the international community and the UN against the current government and his advocacy for war crimes court.