Delay of Human Rights Commission Undermines Human Rights, Accountability in Liberia

News, Press Release

Monrovia/New York

 

The failure of Liberia’s senate to confirm all presidential nominees to the Independent National Commission for Human Rights (INCHR) is a major setback to efforts to protect and promote human rights in Liberia, including moving forward the country’s transitional justice agenda, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said last week.

 

 

“Seven years after the end of the conflict, it is unfortunate that the INCHR, which is an important human rights protection mechanism mandated by the peace accord, is still not functioning,” said Hanny Megally, ICTJ’s Interim President. “Liberia’s government has an obligation to ensure that this important body is able to perform its mandate,” he continued.

 

In August 2009 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf nominated seven people—but later withdrew one of them—to serve on the INCHR after spending nearly three years vetting possible nominees and making amendments to the March 2005 INCHR Act. The senate rejected all nominees after two rounds of confirmation hearings yesterday.

 

The INCHR mandate is to promote and protect human rights in post-conflict Liberia. At the same time, the act that created the TRC—whose mandate is to investigate human rights violations committed between January 1979 and Oct. 14, 2003—calls on the INCHR to ensure the implementation of the TRC recommendations.

 

However, the INCHR Act makes no reference to the TRC and its recommendations. To reconcile this, President Sirleaf asked the senate to initiate amendments to the INCHR Act that will allow it to work on the TRC recommendations. The senate has yet to act on this request.

 

“The delay in the commission’s establishment sends a discouraging message about the government’s commitment to begin the review of the TRC recommendations, despite what the president stipulated in January’s State of the Nation address,” said Comfort Ero, deputy director of ICTJ’s Africa Program. “Liberia’s executive and senate must act swiftly to fully establish this important structure and enable it to begin its important work, which includes helping Liberia to respond to its ongoing transitional justice needs.”

 

It is imperative that the government draws on the best practices of human rights commissions in particular the need to create a strong, independent and impartial body that establishes a national culture of respect for human rights.

 

 

Editor @ February 25, 2010