Renew Mandate To Establish War Crimes Court -Calls On President To Step Up Progress On Justice For Grave Crimes

Six human rights groups have called on President Joseph Boakai to follow through on his commitment to justice and human rights by renewing an executive order key to establishing a war crimes court to address accountability for civil war-era crimes in the country as the order, signed on May 2, 2024, is set to expire on May 1, 2025.
The Liberian and international nongovernmental organizations are Advocates for Human Rights, Civitas Maxima, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, Global Justice Center, Global Justice and Research Project, and Human Rights Watch calling on the government and international partners to ensure support for the establishment of the court.
“Liberia’s quest to bring closure for victims of civil war atrocities, and ensure their access to justice, remains a major priority,” said Adama Dempster, secretary-general of the Civil Society Human Rights Platform of Liberia.
Widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law characterized Liberia’s two brutal armed conflicts, which took place between 1989 and 2003 and they include summary executions, massacres, rape and other forms of sexual violence, mutilation and torture, and forced conscription and use of child combatants.
Nobody has faced criminal investigation or prosecution in Liberia for serious crimes committed during the civil wars. The only steps toward justice for serious crimes have been cases prosecuted abroad.
The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in its final 2009 report, recommended the creation of an extraordinary criminal court, a hybrid court composed of Liberian and international judges, prosecutors, and other staff with a mandate to try those allegedly responsible for committing serious crimes.
As the groups highlighted in a recent submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council in the context of Liberia’s upcoming November 2025 Universal Periodic Review, 16 years later, Liberia has yet to implement this critical recommendation.
The May 2024 executive order established an office to “investigate, design, and prescribe the methodology, mechanisms, and the process” for the establishment of a war crimes court and a national anti-corruption court (Office for the Establishment of War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia).
“President Boakai promised Liberians accountability for wartime atrocities, but for this to become a reality, he needs to renew the executive order,” said Michelle Reyes Milk, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “President Boakai should also work with the Legislature to replace the executive order with legislation so the office can work sustainably to develop the framework for establishing the war and economic crimes court.”
Over the course of 2024, the Boakai administration took further steps toward setting up the office. President Boakai made a public commitment to advance the process during a speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2024.
Additional steps included the withdrawal of the appointment of the first executive director for the office following strong reservations voiced by victim and civil society groups and the more consultative process involved in the second appointment, resulting in the selection of Jallah Barbu as the new executive director.
President Boakai also wrote to the UN secretary-general requesting assistance in establishing a court.
However, progress remains limited. In January 2025, the groups wrote to President Boakai calling on the government to take necessary measures towards the establishment of the court.
The organizations highlighted the need to ensure the office has requisite staffing and budgetary support and called on the office to adopt an action plan, or “roadmap,” to advance preparation for the court’s establishment.
The plan should address the model on which the war crimes court will be designed; the composition of the court; a clear procedure for the election and appointment of its officials; a proposed budget; and efforts needed for the adoption of a statute, among other issues, and have clear action points and intended outcomes.
Despite the challenges in the process, prospects for a war crimes court continue to offer thousands of victims a promise of justice that has long evaded them, the groups said.
President Boakai should renew the executive order and ensure sufficient funding is in place so that the necessary work to establish the court can accelerate.