-Awarded IIE-SRF Beau Biden Chair
Liberian human rights lawyer and founder of the Green Advocate NGO, Cllr. Alfred Bownell has been awarded the Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) in the United Stated.
A report published on the institution’s website says Cllr. Brownell was selected a Distinguished Scholar in Residence in Northeastern University School of Law’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) receiving its inaugural Beau Biden Chair.
Dr. Jill Biden, former Second Lady of the United States, 2009–2017, presented the award to Brownell at the IIE’s annual gala in New York City on October 15.
The Beau Biden Chair at the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund provides fellowships to preserve the lives and knowledge base of scholars who are in danger.
It allows them to continue their academic careers by teaching and engaging in research at safe-haven universities in their home countries, so that they can continue to educate future generations and help rebuild their home countries after times of conflict.
One of Africa’s leading environmental and human rights defenders, Brownell has been in residence at Northeastern since in 2016.
According to the institution’s website report, he and his family were forced to flee his native Liberia after an attempt on his life in response to his leadership in protecting community land rights.
As a founder, CEO and lead campaigner at Green Advocates, Liberia’s first public-interest environmental law and human rights organization, Brownell has worked for 20 years as researcher, legal counsel and advocate for impoverished rural communities to ensure them a voice in decisions affecting their natural resources.
In his field of research, Brownell has established the serious human rights impacts of large agribusiness activities, including the destruction of sacred sites, burial grounds, farmlands, forests and wetlands that serve as a primary source of food for local communities. He has also documented the deleterious impact on food security and on traditional subsistence farming practices prompted by the introduction of monocrop agriculture.
His most recent victory followed his seven-year struggle to stop the destruction of the tropical forest lands of poor communities and indigenous people in Liberia.
The Appeal Panel of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) denied Golden Agric Resources appeal against complaints Brownell and his colleagues filed against this company in 2012 on behalf of communities and indigenous peoples in Liberia.
“We have scored another big victory against the massive multi-billion-dollar oil palm giant, Golden Agric Resources,” said Brownell. “This is a massive victory for our communities, indigenous peoples and the Upper Guinean forests — the lungs of West and North Africa. Even though they threatened us, plotted assassination attempts against us and masterminded our exile from Liberia, we have shown them we can still fight and win,” said Brownell.
In July, Brownell was invited by The Carter Center to attend its Human Rights Defenders Forum, “Restoring Faith in Freedom.”
The Carter Center participates in hosting Human Rights Defenders Policy Forums, which bring together human rights activists from a number of countries. President and Mrs. Carter, the UN high commissioner for human rights and the special representative on human rights defenders have keynoted these conferences.
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