Monrovia – The Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR) in collaboration with the Government of Liberia has concluded a two-day dialogue on the national human rights action plan.
Report by Edwin Genoway, Jr – [email protected]
The National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) explains how the government of Liberia intends to promote, expand and protect the rights of its citizens and residents alike until 2018 and onward.
The NHRAP focuses on civil and political rights, social, economic, and cultural rights, women’s rights, child rights and the rights of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The INCHR is responsible to monitor the implementation of the NHRAP.
The acting chairman of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, Rev. Bartholomew B. Colley, described the dialogue as necessary.
“The National Human Rights Action Plan reinvigorates Liberians’ commitment to foster and guarantee the overall development of all persons and populations by respecting, defending and promoting their human rights, ensuring the full exercise of civil political, social economic, cultural, and environmental rights deemed inseparable, interdependent, and equally essential,” he noted.
He noted that the commission will leave no stone unturned in its advocacy and promotion of human rights.
“This is why the INCHR was founded. As we conclude this dialogue, the issue of human rights should [be] high on the agenda of all government institutions with the INHCR taking the lead,” he noted.
The dialogue will continue in Gbarpolu County on February 13 and 14, Maryland on February 27 and 28 and Grand Gedeh on March 2 and 3, 2017, respectively. The dialogue is under the theme: “Taking (NHRAP) to the People”.
Speaking earlier, the Director of the Human Rights Section of the Ministry of Justice, Kutaka Devine Togba disclosed that the government embraces the National Human Right Action Plan.
“The Government of Liberia embraces the National Human Rights Action Plan, while recognizing all human rights contained in the international declarations and treaties, the constitution and domestic legislations,” Togba said.
The two-day dialogue on the plan implemented and funded by the Ministry of Justice and the secretariat of the NHRAP with sponsorship from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) concluded its Monrovia edition – the first of their planned four nation-wide dialogues on the NHRAP.
The launch brought together stakeholders from civil society, UNMIL and other government institutions for the purpose of deriving a methodology that will ensure a successful nationwide dialogue with citizens and communities across the country.
The dialogue is also intended to derive consensus for the implementation of the plan.