The United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human (OHCHR) along with the Independent National Commission for Human Rights (INCHR) and the Liberia National Police (LNP) concluded a two-day training for Community Watch Forum, human rights officers, local authorities including women and youth groups on community policing in post electoral context in Ganta City, Nimba County.
The training which is a Peace Building Fund (PBF) project under the theme: “Promoting a Peaceful Environment and Community Security in Liberia,” began in 2023 with the training of Law enforcement Officers (LEO), local authorities, Peace Committees, women and youth groups as well as civil society organizations on their roles and responsibilities in ensuring that communities are peaceful and free from violence before, during and after the elections in 2023.
The training which brought together nearly 40 participants including Community Watch Forum, LNP officers, human rights officers as well as local and traditional leaders from Bong, Lofa and Nimba Counties aimed to promote a peaceful environment throughout Liberia following the 2023 elections, mitigate conflicts at the community level and engage community dwellers in peaceful dialogue that would promote coexistence among community members.
Speaking at the opening ceremonies, the Executive Director of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, Urias Pouh, charged participants to serve as ambassadors in their various communities and called on them to use knowledge gain to promote peace and tranquility in their communities.
“See yourself as peace ambassadors in your community; those who are on the frontier to ensure that their community remain peaceful despite the post-election tension that are mounting. You must also use knowledge gains as a tool to engage your community in peaceful dialogue at all levels,” Atty. Pouh charged.
The INCHR ED however acknowledged the human resource and logistical constraints that the Liberia National Police, the Community Watch Forum as well as CSO and various women and youth groups working at the community level are challenged with, but encouraged them to see a peaceful community as their sole objective.
“We are all aware many challenges that you are enduring, but we should remember that the peace of this country is all of priority,” Pouh noted.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Samuel Ford, encouraged the participants, especially the LNP Community Police officer and Community Watch Forum officer to work collaboratively to fight crime and promote peace in the community.
“You know the police cannot succeed in fighting crime without the support of the community. I want you to go back to your community and practicalize the knowledge gain from these two days sitting because we expect that you will carry out these messages back to your community and engage with your people on how all of us can fight crime in our community,” ACP Ford said.
Speaking on behalf of the OHCHR, human rights officer Roosevelt Jayjay informed participants that Liberia has made significant strides in its post-conflict recovery, but yet the nation continues to face challenges related to community violence, including mob violence and electoral violence, noting that during the 2023 elections, OHCHR documented several electoral violence incidents in Montserrado and Nimba Counties, which has also been flagged as hotspot areas.
He said in most of these incidents, there was a lack of accountability, which can constitute an underlying threat to future conduct of elections due to the non-resolution of previous incidents.
“It can be recalled that following the general and presidential elections held in 2005 and 2011 respectively, post-elections era was marked by tensions and occasional violence involving youth and women at the forefront, both as victims and key actors. It is also worth noting that youth and women also played key role on the prevention and resolution of post-electoral violence,” Atty. Jayjay observed.
In 2014, the Liberia National Police established Community Watch Teams which are responsible to assist the LNP in reporting and preventing crimes and violence at community levels where there is no police presence.
Jayjay observed that during the 2023 general and presidential elections CWTs worked with LNP in conducting awareness and sensitization on peaceful elections as well as reporting and preventing crimes.
“However, crimes and violence continue to be prevalent in many communities, undermining peace, stability, and development efforts across some communities in the target counties and mitigating those crimes or violence by CWTs sometimes leads to possible human rights abuses/violations.”
To address the gaps, CWTs, traditional and local leaders as well as women and youth groups are trained on human rights and the rule of law, conflict resolution and post elections and genders to strengthen their capacity to be compliant to human rights norms which will strengthening their capacity through targeted training and the establishment and support of regular joint patrols by the police and CWTs will proactively identify and prevent crimes triggers in communities,” he concluded.
