MONROVIA – Civil Society Organizations in Liberia have lauded the outgoing Representative of the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) for his contribution to the improvement of the advocacy capabilities of the Civil Society groups in the country.
Speaking at a one-day dialogue with CSOs on Peaceful Election in Monrovia on Thursday, February 16, 2023, the Chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, Loretta Pope Karr appreciated the UN Envoy for mainstreaming human rights activities in Liberia.
Madam Pope Karr said reports on education, sexual reproductive health, and natural resource governance highlighted issues undertaken by civil society groups working in those thematic areas. “We like to appreciate the work that you have done for civil society. What interests me more is how you were able to mainstream civil society human rights issue respecting different interest- interest in sexual reproductive health, education, and natural resource governance”, Loretta Pope Karr.
The Chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia asserted that OHCHR under the leadership of Uchenna Emelonye worked with civil society to document human rights violations during the COVID- 19 outbreak in Liberia. She indicated that civil society actors were deployed at checkpoints to record incidents of rights violations which sometimes appeared in the media. Pope Karr: “You were able to document, monitor and report on human rights violations, and over the period we also observed that that human rights violation that took place at different checkpoints and centers were well captured and at the end of the day those engagements because it was so effectively done that you had civil society posted at different places to gather information and be able to report on a weekly basis”.
Also speaking at the event, the Secretary General of the Civil Society Human Rights Platform of Liberia, Adama Dempster lauded the OHCHR for its support to the human rights community in Liberia. Adama Dempster: “The OHCHR came to Liberia on the request of Liberian Human Rights Community in 2018 to help with the strengthening of the CSOs and state institutions capacities to work to protect the right of Liberians and project the right image of the country”. Dempster urged Emelonye to remain an ambassador for Liberia in the United Nations system.
In remarks, Outgoing OHCHR Representative to Liberia Dr. Uchenna Emelonye said a strong and vibrate relationship has been built with the government and the civil society. Dr. Emelonye stressed that there exists a climate for human rights work to flourish in Liberia. Uchenna Emelonye said “I have open access to government functionaries, we meet, we engage, they do their best, they fall short in certain areas and there is still work in progress. Looking back to when I came to where I am today that climate of doubt has been resolved and it is good for all of us. The Government of Liberia is not throwing away the Commissioner of the High Commission for Human Rights like they did in Uganda. There is no threat on the office. There is no restriction on the office. There is no call that I receive as they do in other countries that say don’t go this place. In the case of Liberia, I will say we have a climate to work for human rights much more than we have done”.
The outgoing OHCHR Representative to Liberia said he succeeded in the improvement of law & policies, civil society operational capacities, and institutions.
Touching on Sub-grants for CSOs on Peaceful Election, Dr. Uchenna Emelonye said civil society organizations are required to monitor elections from a human rights context; report on misinformation and disinformation, hate speech which result to human rights violation. The sub-grant for civil society groups will allow the CSOs to monitor law enforcement organizations like the Ministry of Justice, Liberia National Police on the protection of individual rights during the election period and in addition to engage in sensitization for right to political participations.
Meanwhile, Dr. Uchenna Emelonye lamented that he is troubled by the state of the Independent National Human Right Commission (INCHR) and the worsening conflict at the institution.
Dr. Emelonye said the functions and success of the Liberian Government are dependent on the work of the Human Rights Commission which is tied to the annual human rights report of the country. He noted that as fracture as the INCHR is right pitches horrible human rights ratings for Liberia annually.
Moreover, Dr. Emelonye disclosed that he has been cleared by a United Nations internal investigation on the period of 2018-2022 and found that no money was missing and that there exists tight financial regulation to prevent fraud.
An Audit of the INCHR done by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) claimed that there was systemic corruption and mismanagement in the handling of the US$4.9 million EU-Liberia Dialogue/Swedish commitment originally intended to strengthen the capacity of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR).
Dr. Uchenna Emelonye is expected to head the OHCHR operations in neighboring Sierra Leone.