Transitional Justice in Liberia: The Interface Between Civil Society Organisations and the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Abstract

For many years, efforts to end the Liberian civil war were frustrated by President Charles Taylor, who aimed to retain the presidency at any cost, and by warlords, who aimed to control the mineral-rich regions of Liberia. In 2003, after concerted efforts by local civil society and regional and international organisations, the warring parties signed the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to end 14 years of civil war, and the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was formed. A clause in the CPA required the NTGL to institute a truth commission, the only transitional justice accountability mechanism agreed upon by the peace negotiators, with the goal of realising national peace and security, unity and reconciliation. This chapter analyses the role of civil society in Liberia’s transitional process, specifically its involvement in the conception, drafting of laws and implementation of the mandate and final recommendations of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (LTRC). It establishes that Liberia’s civil society organisations were instrumental in lobbying for warring parties to reach a ceasefire and that some were intimately involved in the peace negotiations in Accra. It shows how civil society was compromised in not pushing for prosecutions and instead opted for a truth commission. The chapter concludes that while civil society organisations were instrumental in establishing the LTRC, their role in implementing its mandate was minimal. After the final report was published, however, CSOs became central to seeing that the LTRC’s recommendations are fully implemented.