United Nations Human Rights Committee calls on Liberia to Prosecute Perpetrators of Civil War Atrocities

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (the Committee), a body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by its State parties, has issued strong concluding observations on Liberia’s continued impunity for past crimes and human rights violations and calls upon the Liberian government to establish, as a matter of priority, a process of accountability for war crimes.

On 26 July 2018, following the first ever review of the human rights situation by the Committee, which included a dialogue with the Liberian government, the Committee concluded that it “regrets the very few steps taken to implement the bulk of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations of 2009.”

It also expressed “concern that none of the alleged perpetrators of gross human rights violations and war crimes mentioned in the TRC report, has been brought to justice, and that some of those individuals are or have been holding official executive positions, including in the government.”

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