Human rights in Liberia

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Human rights in Liberia became a focus of international attention when the country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was named one of the three female co-winners of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, all of whom were cited "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".^[1]

Yet, as the Guardian noted in October 2012, "the award to President Sirleaf was not unanimously welcomed in her own country", and a year after the prize was announced, one of Sirleaf's co-winners, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, articulated the views of many of Sirleaf's critics, charging the president with nepotism, among other offenses, and citing the high government positions held by Sirleaf's three sons.^[2] In November 2012, a Liberian human-rights lawyer, Tiawan Saye Gongloe, also criticized Sirleaf's nepotism and called on her to resign.^[3]

Both nepotism and corruption are widespread in Liberia. Among the country's other very serious human-rights problems are ritualistic killings, police abuse, incidents of so-called "trial by ordeal", arbitrary arrest, the denial of due process, violence against women, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, child abuse, human trafficking, and child labor. Since the end of the Civil War in 2003, however, there has been a great deal of activity by a number of international organizations with the objective of establishing in Liberia a solid democracy based on human rights.^[2]

Liberia is a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.^[4]