Speech: Mr. President, Liberians cannot wait
It is an honor and I am grateful for the opportunity we were given to speak to you on this special occasion. I am humbled by your preferment to serve as your keynote speaker tonight. I stand before you today, not only as a proud citizen of Lofa county; but also, a grandson of a […]
How international justice can go local
In his recent diatribe against the International Criminal Court, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton might have given some the impression that the International Criminal Court had somehow conjured up international law, writes Eric Witte. That is not the case. Instead, the court is the keystone of a nascent system of institutions enforcing already-existing laws: […]
Liberians should not cry for secularism
It is bad enough that secularism is a growing problem in the Liberian culture. Given the rebellious spirit that is prevalent in our homeland, it frightens me when some of my friends downplay the relevance of religion in all strata of society. They debate that our country must entrust discussions of national interest to secularism; […]
Preventing election violence in West Africa
During 2018, elections will be held in 23 African states – at local, regional or national level. Democratic elections have become more common on the African continent. At the same time, an increase in electoral violence is reported, writes Emma Skeppström. According to a study by Stephanie M. Burchard, more than half of Africa’s states […]
Language lessons of the 2014 Ebola epidemic
August 2014 was a scary time in West Africa. Ebola was spreading rapidly and the international community was waking up to a disaster that ultimately killed more than 11,000 people, writes Aimee Ansari. In the midst of the epidemic, UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services published ominous survey results: In Sierra Leone, one of the hardest-hit […]
Djibouti faces dark days ahead
Djibouti has been landlocked Ethiopia’s only access to the sea and depends on port taxes paid by Ethiopia for most of its income and with the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab on the Red Sea about to open finds itself faced with losing most of the Ethiopian trade it has enjoyed a monopoly on […]
Liberia: Why the trials of perpetrators matter to me
Sometime in early 1989, I was visiting three of my childhood friends. I was working as a reporter with the Ministry of Information as the only female in the newsroom in Monrovia, Liberia. Together we decided to form an organization that would meet once a month and work with the less fortunate in the Liberian […]
The Liberian access to justice movement
When we first began working on documenting war crimes and representing victims in their quest for justice in 2012, my team and I stayed largely undercover. Nobody in Liberia knew what we were doing. We wanted to quietly document crimes and build case files without anybody knowing about our work and potentially trying to hinder […]
Prof. Gray: Africa cannot develop in isolation
China’s robust economic growth in the past decades of the country’s opening up based on principles and shared values, which has lifted hundreds of million of people out of extreme poverty, offers lessons for other regions, especially Africa to pay keen attention. China and Africa “have always belonged to a community of shared values and […]
Sweden speaks on peace and security in Africa
National statement delivered by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Margot Wallström on behalf of Sweden at the United Nations Security Council Briefing on Peace and Security in Africa, 10 July 2018, New York. Ladies and gentlemen, Yesterday morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, the African Union Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, and I arrived […]
