PHOTO: (L-R) Speaker Chambers and Senate Pro Tempore Albert Chie
By Augustine Octavius,sarwahking@gmail.com
The human rights community in Liberia and its international partners have sent a letter to House Speaker, Dr. Bohfal Chambers, expressing their concern and opposition to the Senate’s recent recommendation proposing the establishment of the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC).
Recently, the Liberian Senate recommended to President George Weah the setting up of the Transitional Justice Commission purposely to review the work and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which in 2010 recommended the setting of of a war crimes court to try those holding the greatest responsibility for one of Africa’s most brutal civil wars that killed about 250,000 people.
Images of the war which lasted from 1989-2003
This move by the Senate now requires the House of Representatives to either concur or reject.
But the rights community, including international nongovernmental organizations said that they are committed to ensuring justice for victims of serious international crimes perpetrated during Liberia’s civil wars.
The letter to the Liberian House Speaker, which was signed by representatives of six national human rights organizations and four international partners, said:
“We are deeply concerned and would like to express our opposition to the Liberian Senate’s recent recommendation, which we understand that the House of Representatives will also consider, for the president to set up a Transitional Justice Commission.”
The CSOs include the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, the Independent Human Rights Investigators, and the Global Justice and Research Project.
Others are the Secretariat for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia, the Transitional Justice Working Group of Liberia and the Liberia Massacre and Survivors Association
The rest of the organizations that also signed the letter are the Human Rights Watch, Civitas Maxima, the Advocates for Human Rights and the Center for Justice and Accountability
The letter addressed to House Speaker, Bhofal Chambers, and dated July 29, 2021 pointed that the CSOs and their international partners believe the proposed TJC would subvert the Act which established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia and unnecessarily delay and thwart the establishment of a court to deliver justice to victims of civil war-era atrocity crimes.
The local and international rights groups argued that at this stage of Liberia’s transition from the civil wars, the TJC is not necessary and would be duplicative of the role of the Independent National Human Rights Commission “to ensure that all recommendations contained in the report of the TRC are implemented,” as laid out in section 46 of the TRC Act.
The letter indicated that the position paper on which the recommendation of the Liberian Senate is based has sought to suggest that the TRC acted inconsistently with its mandate under section 4 of the TRC Act “to promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation” in recommending prosecutions,
Section 4 of the TRC Act mandated the TRC to “provide a forum that will address issues of impunity,” and expressly empowered the TRC Commissioners to make recommendations to the Head of State as to the “need to hold prosecutions” in section 26.
The CSOs and international human rights organizations maintained that the TRC did precisely as directed in recommending the establishment of the extraordinary Criminal Court for Liberia purposely to prosecutre alleged war crimes.
“We also believe that retributive and restorative justice can and should be progress in parallel,” the letter went on “ prosecutions of serious international crimes are required by international law, are necessary for victims to have redress for crimes that were committed, and they can positively impact societies by signaling that such crimes will not be tolerated in the future.”
The letter furthered that trials would inevitably be limited to a small number of higher-level alleged perpetrators due to resource and feasibility constraints, which is part of why they can and should act in tandem with broader accountability initiatives, which offer wider opportunities to promote healing across the population.
According to them, the position paper attempts to argue that the 2003 amnesty could or should preclude for prosecution, but any such interpretation of a prior amnesty would put Liberia squarely at odds with its international obligations to ensure justice for international crimes.
The letter indicated: “we have also found that criminal accountability for civil war-era atrocities have wide support in Liberia and it was based on this back ground that individuals, families of the victims, and activists have marched in the streets of Monrovia multiple times in recent years calling for accountability and demanding the creation of a war crimes court.”
They reminded the house speaker of the support for a war crime court in April 2019 of the Liberia National Bar Association, and the National Traditional Council during the National Economic Dialogue attended by 350 Liberians, including members of the government, political parties, youth, and civil society.
“Moreover,” the letter explained, “in September 2019, more than 50 members of the House of Representatives have endorsed a resolution backing a war crimes court for Liberia.”
“It is not surprising that those who may have reason to fear the reach of the law are seeking to frustrate criminal accountability,” the rights groups added.
Their letter to the Liberian Legislature made it clear that the Liberian people have the right to see justice done and have waited more than a decade since the TRC recommended that alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes committed during Liberia’s civil wars be fairly tried and held to account.
The CSOs and partners noted that this is not the time to delay the prospect of accountability with a new commission.
“Instead, we are urging President George Weah and the legislature to move forward in giving victims access to justice for atrocities committed by requesting assistance from the United Nations and Liberia’s other international partners to establish a war crimes court.”
“By building off the TRC report’s proposed statute for a court that could try war crimes and other relevant initiatives, such as a draft court statute developed by the Liberia National Bar Association, and by calling upon international expertise and assistance for support in conducting war crimes investigations and trials that are consistent with domestic law and international standards, justice for victims of civil wars-era crimes can finally be achieved in Liberia.”
Copies of the letter were sent to the Deputy House Speaker, the members of the House of Representatives and the European Union Delegation to Liberia.
Copies were also delivered to the Embassy of Ireland, he Embassy of Sweden, the German Embassy, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United States Embassy.