• World Report 2011: Liberia
    Jan 24, 2011
    During 2010 the Liberian government made some gains in consolidating the rule of law, ensuring sound fiscal management, and improving access to key economic rights, including health care and primary education.
  • Liberia
    Jan 20, 2010
    Striking deficiencies within Liberia’s rule of law sectors resulted in persistent human rights violations and undermined President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s post-war recovery, anti-corruption, and development agendas. The increasing incidence of violent crime as well as protests by disgruntled youths, mob and vigilante justice, and bloody land disputes claimed numerous lives and exposed the systemic and persistent weaknesses within the police, judiciary, and corrections sectors. Concern about inadequate progress in strengthening the rule of law was exacerbated by several risk factors, notably the global economic crisis, high unemployment, and growing insecurity in neighboring Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.
  • Liberia
    Jan 14, 2009
    Throughout 2008 the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made tangible progress in addressing endemic corruption, creating the legislative framework for respect for human rights, and facilitating economic growth, but little headway in strengthening the rule of law. Numerous incidents of violent crime, mob and vigilante justice, and bloody land disputes claimed tens of lives and exposed the systemic and persistent weaknesses within the police, judiciary, and corrections sectors. The disappointing progress in these sectors, five years after the end of armed conflict, highlighted the fragility of the security situation and prompted calls for urgent action.
  • Liberia
    Feb 5, 2008
    Throughout 2007 the government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made tangible progress in rebuilding Liberia’s failed institutions, fighting corruption, and promoting the rule of law. However, longstanding deficiencies within the judicial system and security sector continue to undermine basic human rights. Meanwhile, there have been few efforts to pursue justice for the egregious human rights violations committed during Liberia’s 14 years of armed conflict that finally came to an end in 2003.
  • Liberia
    Jan 30, 2006
    The completion in October and November 2005 of presidential and parliamentary elections marked a major step towards the consolidation of Liberia’s transition from a near-failed state rife with human rights abuses to a democratic state governed by the rule of law. The elections followed a 2003 peace agreement which ended three years of internal armed conflict and the deployment in 2003 of some fifteen thousand United Nations peacekeepers. At year’s end there were solid grounds for optimism including the disarmament of more than 101,000 combatants; the return home of tens of thousands of civilians who had fled during the war; the recognition by both Liberia and the international community of the role corruption played in fomenting armed conflict; and the ability of journalists and civil society to function after years of being silenced, persecuted and targeted. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission empowered to recommend prosecutions for the worst offenders was also established. However, the human rights situation remained precarious as a result of frequent criminal acts in the face of inadequate police and civil authorities; striking deficiencies within the judicial system; financial shortfalls for programs to train demobilized combatants; and continued regional instability, most notably in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. Moreover, there was little progress on ensuring accountability for past atrocities.
  • Liberia
    Jan 30, 2005
    The peace agreement signed between the Liberian government and two rebel groups in August 2003 ended more than three years of internal armed conflict and provided for a transitional government, largely made up of members of the three former warring parties, to guide Liberia to elections in 2005. In 2004, the deployment of some fifteen thousand United Nations peacekeepers and one thousand civilian police, and the disarmament of more than ninety thousand combatants contributed to a marked decrease in abuses against civilians and attacks against human rights defenders. However, the human rights situation remains precarious as a result of frequent criminal acts by ex-combatants in the face of inadequate police and civil authorities; striking deficiencies within the national judicial system; infighting and allegations of corruption within the transitional government; serious shortfalls in financing the program to reintegrate and train demobilized combatants; and continued regional instability, most notably in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea. There has been little discussion on how to ensure accountability for past human rights abuses. The selection of commissioners for the truth and reconciliation commission mandated by the 2003 peace agreement, lacked transparency. The Nigerian government, which offered former president Charles Taylor a safe haven in August 2003 when rebels threatened to take the capital Monrovia, has refused to hand him over to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which indicted him for war crimes connected with his support for rebels in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, several of Taylor’s close associates have been implicated in plans to attack neighboring Guinea, which once served as a haven for the rebels which led to his removal from power.