The Tom Lantos Human Rights Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives will on Thursday, June 13, 2024 hold a hearing on the establishment of a war and economic crimes court for Liberia at about 10:00 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., United States of America.
According to information, panelists at the hearing, who will also serve as witnesses, will examine the legacy of Liberia’s civil wars on its people and economy and the next steps for the new Office of a War and Economic Crimes Court, and offer recommendations to the US Congress. The hearing will be hybrid, with members of Congress participating in person while the panelists may participate in person or remotely via Cisco WebEx. The public and the media may attend in person or view the hearing by live webcast on the commission’s website.
To ensure that persons with vested interest have access to the hearing, it will also be available for viewing on the House Digital Channel service.
The hearing will be hosted by Representative Chris Smith and Representative James P. McGovern.
The first panel, otherwise known as witnesses, will include Dr. Alan White, Co-Executive Director, Advocacy Foundation for Human Rights (non-profit organization) and former Chief of Investigations of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone; Yahsyndi Martin-Kpeyei, Executive Director, Movement for Justice for Liberia; Alvin Smith, Chief Investigator, International Justice Group (NGO); and Michael Rubin, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.
Adama Kiatamba Dempster, National Secretary General, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, and Elizabeth Evenson, Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch, will also serve on the first panel as witnesses to provide recommendations to the US Congress.
According to Hot Pepper’s Washington sources, a huge number of Liberians in the diaspora have formed a delegation, headed by Rich Blojay Urey, and are headed to Washington, D.C. for the hearing.
Many Liberians, home and abroad, are hopeful that the panelist will be eligible in providing concrete reasons for the US government to fully endorse and financially support the establishment of the courts. On May 2, President Joseph N. Boakai signed an Executive Order to establish the Office of a War and Economic Crimes Court—a major, long-awaited step toward redressing the wounds of the country’s civil wars. The Office is empowered to investigate, design and prescribe the methodology, mechanisms and the processes for the establishment of a Special War Crimes Court as well as a National Anti-Corruption Court.
In recent decades, Liberians suffered untold human rights violations while perpetrators acted with near-complete impunity during the country’s multiple civil wars. Between 1989 and 2003, an estimated 250,000 Liberians died from the fighting, and thousands more were conscripted as child soldiers, raped, suffered loss of limb, and endured other traumatic experiences. Since that time, not a single war crimes trial has occurred in Liberia as part of the country’s judicial process.
However, because of the duration of quietness about the fruition of the court since President Boakai signed the Executive Order that established the court, critics are beginning to term the process a fiasco.
A prominent Liberian and former Auditor General of the Republic of Liberia, John Morlu, recently said that the Liberian government is merely pretending to support the establishment of the court without any genuine intention to follow through. He asserted that the government’s initial actions were solely motivated by public pressure, rather than a sincere commitment to justice.
But now that the US Congress has scheduled a hearing on the matter for tomorrow, it is believed that the government has been vesting efforts in the establishment of the court, even though the progress is slower in the eyes of stakeholders.