Monrovia – Liberia has gone more than decade without civil unrest due largely to the presence of one of the largest United Nations Peace Keeping Missions in the world, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) but a Commissioner of Liberia’s National Human Rights Commission believes issues of ethnic division should be taken seriously in Liberia.
Liberian politics has taken tribal dimension over the years with individuals hailing from particular tribes using tribal sentiments to win votes.
Prince Y. Johnson usually says Nimba County dominated by his native Gio tribe is his pepperbush, Cllr. Charles W. Brumskine also always lean towards his kinsmen in Grand Bassa for votes, same as many other politicians who normally use tribal connection to woo votes.
Commissioner Wilfred G. Johnson says while Liberia is enjoying peace along with other West African countries, the trend of politics should be looked at seriously especially the tribal, religious dimensions the country’s politics has taken in recent time.
“We need to look at a lot of things seriously. Political parties are being formed on the basis of tribal, religious affiliations, some people saying it is time for this tribe to lead or this region, that is igniting ethnic tension”, warns Commissioner Johnson.
Commissioner Johnson says such pronouncements by politicians could create a situation where elections results could be contested by supporters of these politicians, resulting to violence.
Officially launching the Responsibility to Protect conducted by the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Liberia), the Human Rights Commissioner said there still persist inter-state conflicts over borders in Africa and elsewhere.
The report, which is a ground-breaking initiative by WANEP in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark in Ghana to provide understanding of the gaps between the theory and practice of Responsibility to Protect, used Ghana as a case study and expanding the scope to cover the West Africa region of ECOWAS, was launched simultaneously in many West African countries.
“In addition, ethnic and religious tensions, the increasing number of failed states and the persistence of inter-state conflict over borders and resources, or around disputes over elections, strongly suggest that African countries must not only accede to the R2P concept but must develop the appropriate policy, strategy or framework that are multi-dimensional and will require making use of early warning strategies, risk assessments and preventive measures to counter existing and potential threats to its security”, he stated.
Commissioner Johnson expressed that the report is rooted in the promotion and protection of human rights to which most, if not all of the West Africa states, have acceded and is a party and signatory including a wide range of international human rights and humanitarian treaties and conventions which reemphasize and re-confirm these basic inalienable rights including the right to life.
Said Commissioner Johnson: “The release and launch of this report is timely especially for Liberia considering UNMIL consolidated drawdown and withdrawal and as the nation prepares for national referendum to amend the 1986 constitution, as well as prepare for the 2017 Legislative and presidential elections”.
He added ‘It is my anticipation that this report will go a long way in helping us strengthen our UNMIL transitional plan, our national security strategy as well as our peacebuilding and reconciliation, justice and security and development plans”.
Limited knowledge of R2P
The report, using Ghana as a case study, which James F. Benson, Monitoring and Evaluation/Network & Communication Officer at WANEP says is a problem common across West African countries found that respondents are not aware of the R2P concept including some of the institutions relevant to the implementation. The study also finds that 96.1% of respondents indicated that war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide and other mass atrocities could not be justifiable.
“At least 66% of respondents had experienced some injustice or human rights abuse as against 31.5% who had not. Harassment from other citizens – that’s Landlords, land guards, neighbors etc was the most mentioned constituting 26.1% with discrimination on the basis of sex, political leanings and disabilities”, stated the report.
According to the report, most respondents did not bother to report instances of discrimination because they believe ‘nothing good would come out of it’ while only 19.2% thought government was doing enough to eliminate the drivers of conflict.
Joseph G. Haspie, Human Rights Advisor at UNMIL, said the report reinforces others conventions and chapters on human and people’s rights. He said with the launch of the report, West African countries should put in place legal and other local framework and take the responsibility to protect their citizens. “It should be about the rule of law, the law being the highest authority, not how much money, power or authority and individual has that should prevail”, said Haspie.
The UNMIL Human rights Advisor noted that the report is good but implementation should be the priority and called on West African countries to improve the level of implementation.
Move beyond
ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia Babatunde O. Ajisomo called on West African states to move beyond institutions and replicate the example of Ghana. He said security agencies should be conscious of early warning, mediations and sanctions in handling conflicts.
Ambassador Ajisomo indicated that concrete actions are required to protect citizens of the various ECOWAS countries, noting that a year ago Liberia held a conference on Responsibility to protect but since the conference nothing has been done.
“Responsibility to protect belongs to all and we are on the same pitch, we can protect”, the ECOWAS Ambassador said. Within the last two decades, West African nations have faced instability ranging from civil wars, coup d’état, election related violence and other forms of conflicts.
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast all experienced conflicts and Guinea Bissau also became crisis zone due to repeated coups. At the moment, Mali, Nigeria, Chad are all facing terrorist threats from militias groups such as Boko Haram and other jihadists.
