Author: Anthony Stephens

ONE UN HOUSE, Liberia—A United Nations expert has warned that poverty and equality are high among “children, women and girls” in Liberia and “are drivers” of human trafficking.

MAMBA POINT, Monrovia—The Office of Liberia’s War and Economic Crimes Courts is facing eviction in from its rental space as the ongoing battle with government for funding reaches a crisis point.

The Liberian Senate has confirmed Lewis Brown, President Joseph Boakai’s controversial pick for Ambassador to the United Nations, despite opposition from leading voices in the human rights community in the country.

MONROVIA, Liberia—In a brief visit, Sarah Morgenthau, outgoing US President Joe Biden’s Special Representative for the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs, pressed the Liberian government to urgently improve its investment environment so the US-Liberia relationship can move more quickly to one based on investment by American companies rather than aid from the US taxpayer.

MAMBA POINT, Monrovia—It’s been just one month on the job for Dr. Jallah Allen Barbu, as the country’s second head of Liberia’s Office for the War and Economics Crimes Court. It is clearly not what the 60- year-old legal scholar and former Dean of the University of Liberia Law School expected when he accepted the role that will lead Liberia’s overdue effort to hold those who upended the country and left 250,000 dead, accountable at last.

Human rights advocates and victims’ groups are angry over the death of Prince Johnson, the accused notorious warlord, who died suddenly in Paynesville early Thursday morning. Senator Johnson, 72, had high blood pressure, according to his family.

MONROVIA, Liberia—Lewis Brown, President Joseph Boakai’s controversial pick for Ambassador to the United Nations, said he is innocent of the economics crimes allegations leveled against him in the country’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. In an exclusive interview, Mr. Brown hit back at advocates for a war and economics crimes court who have said that it would be embarrassing and untenable for Mr. Brown to be Liberia’s chief diplomat while the country is seeking technical and financial support from the international community for the court.

By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia—It’s a mantra repeated by government officials, activists and the international community: Liberia’s victims and survivors must be at the heart of efforts to bring justice for crimes committed in the country’s long civil wars that ended in 2003. But now the office to establish the War and Economic Crimes Courts is finally taking shape, victims and survivors say they have been excluded from the process. Victims groups say they were not consulted in the Legislature’s passage of the resolution approving the courts. Neither were they consulted when President Joseph Boakai issued an…

More war crimes court advocates have joined the condemnation of President Joseph Boakai’s pick of Lewis Brown as Liberia’s ambassador to the United Nations. The growing opposition to the pick comes at an uncomfortable time for the president. A UN peace building team arrived in the country on Thursday to meet with key officials about plans for the courts. Liberia’s UN ambassador would lead the country’s efforts to persuade the UN and its international donors to provide the courts with funding, personnel and technical support.

Lewis Brown, whose nomination last week as Liberia’s Ambassador to the United Nations was condemned by leading human rights organizations, has told his Senate confirmation hearing that he supports the country’s upcoming war and economics crimes courts. Mr. Brown told the committee he expects the courts to exonerate him from accusations by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he committed economic crimes during Liberia’s civil wars.