PHOTO: Rev. Francis Kollie
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The Prison Fellowship Liberia in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has launched a project aimed at accelerating the access to justice, promote transparency and accountability in the country.
The project, which began with a two-day training for PFL Human Rights Monitors from all over the country, will be implemented in Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Nimba, Grand Bassa and Maryland Counties.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, the Country Director of Prison Fellowship Liberia, Reverend Francis Kollie disclosed that the project will also be implemented in other parts of the country because the issue of gender-based violence has taken national dimension.
He pointed out that the fellowship’s human rights monitors will visit prisons, police depots and courtrooms in the counties purposely to ascertain cases on gender-based violence for speedy adjudication.
Rev. Kollie added that the project is part of the mission of the fellowship in ensuring the maintenance of human rights, access to justice and reduction of gender-based violence in Liberia.
The Prison Fellowship Liberia Country Director maintained that the fellowship will work with government to ensure that victims of sexual-based violence get justice.
According to him, by working with the government, the PFL human rights monitors will work closely with the judiciary, the Liberia National Police and the Ministry of Justice in order to obtain accurate data on gender-based violence in Liberia.
Some human rights monitors and others
He added that the PFL human rights monitors will be using technology in, storing and filing reports, tracking and accelerating sexual based violence cases from its inception to its logical conclusion
“The issue of sexual-based violence has become a household topic on the local media on a daily basis and the victims continue to undergo trauma and agony.” Rev. Kollie said.
“We as an institution continue to receive reports of gender-based violence on a daily basis,” he added.
For his part, the PFL Administrative Officer, Edwin Johnson , assured the partners and stakeholders in the human rights and justice sectors of the meeting the deliverables in the project.
The Prison Fellowship’s boss thanked the Liberian government for working with the PFL in the ensuring the justice for victims of gender-based in Liberia.
During the training, lectures were presented by Karba Trawally, Consultant, Prison Fellowship Liberia; Cooper Vuku, Kollie Moiyallah, the Information Technology Communication Consultant; and Abednego Boarlay, Program Officer, PFL
In separate remarks, the participants expressed thanks and appreciation the PFL and OSIWAS for the training because it has exposed them to lot of knowledge about human rights and access to justice in the country.