Notes of the meeting with national stakeholders on rule of law

Notes of the meeting with national stakeholders on rule of law

17 February 2006

Presentation

A presentation was given on treaty reporting and its potential to assist the Government to ensure that international human rights standards are applied. To date, Liberia has made only one treaty report (regarding the CRC).

Discussion in Plenary

Cllr. F. Johnson Morris, designated Minister of Justice

• Wide dissemination of the treaties is required so civil society can advocate for the State’s adherence to them.

• UNIL should help civil society to disseminate the treaties, monitor their implementation and push the government to honour its international obligations.

Cllr. Yusuf Kaba, a.i. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

• The judiciary is responsible for implementing the treaties as laws.

•In many African countries, there are problems in how the treaties are recognised by the State and implemented. The Legislative Assembly has to pass laws, with statutory definitions of human rights violations for the Court to be able to apply them. We need to see what legislation should be passed to give form to the treaties.

• Lawyers are a very important institution of the judicial system. In the case of a trial by ordeal in River Cess County, the Judge cannot proceed to hear the case without a prosecutor and defence lawyers.

• UNMIL is aware of the serious problems facing the judiciary; maybe the Government needs to give the judiciary priority in its resource allocation. UNMIL has been very helpful in the passage of the Financial Autonomy Bill.

• The Courts must be given the capacity to perform at an international standard.

Cllr. T. S. Gongloe, Solicitor General

• UNMIL could assist with capacity-building, and by assisting the Government to attract qualified lawyers for the prosecution. Currently the Government cannot compete with the private sector.

• UNMIL should help Liberia give meaning to its name: the land of liberty.

• There should be further formal discussion with UNMIL as to the specific needs.

Cllr. N. O. Tweh President, National Bar Association

• Expressed appreciation that UNMIL is seeking the views of the Liberian stakeholders to find a workable solution together.

• Liberia needs legislation to include the treaty provisions. The Courts must implement the procedural laws, as many of the human rights standards are already included in the procedures but not implemented. Many laws are outdated and need amendment.

• There is a need to ensure that the community has access to the judicial system, including legal representation.

• Lawyers want to stay in Monrovia because there are no incentives for them to work in the Counties.

• In order to build national capacity, UNMIL should consider supporting legal clinics and a programme of law school scholarships that are tied to service after graduation.

Mr. A. Fofie, Director LJSSD

• UNMIL Legal and Judicial System Support Division (LJSSD) has conducted around 11 capacity-building sessions. Yesterday visited the Gbarnga Central Prison (Bong County) and found a man convicted of debt in the amount of US$240 and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. There is no public defender in Bong County. A lot of capacity-building is required and many officials cannot read or write.

• The original version of the draft rape law included the death penalty. AFELL resisted amending the Act to remove this provision but other civil society groups supported UNMIL in advocating for its removal.

• The Rule of Law Task Force is working well.
• The Financial Autonomy Law empowers the Chief Justice to prepare a budget and spend the money without Government interference.

Representative of the Justice and Peace Commission

• Suspects do not have defence lawyers as required by law, and those defence counsel who are working are near retirement. Indigent defendants are at the mercy of the judges.

•JPC has a six-lawyer team to provide pro bono defence services and plans to have a defence lawyers in every County by the end of 2006.

•Liberia needs assistance from the international community to empower national institutions, build capacity and attract qualified personnel. The defence, prosecution and judiciary must all be strengthened and supported to enhance the rule of law.

Cllr. Kaba, a.i. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

• The issue of defence counsel has been under discussion with UNMI for a very long time. The judiciary feels that private lawyers should be contracted to work for indigent accused. The salaries of public defence lawyers have recently been increased to US$100 per month but this is still inadequate. Public defenders should be made available for criminal cases but not civil cases.

•Many prosecutors are not qualified lawyers. None of the magistrates is a lawyer. No lawyer would want to work as a badly-paid magistrate, so there must be another reason why they have taken the job.

•“I do not see the benefit” of UNMIL providing training to unqualified people who cannot read or write. It would be better to spend the money on attracting qualified personnel.

•Liberian law says that only lawyers should practice law, therefore, by training non-lawyers, UNMIL has been contributing to violating the law.

•There must be a coordinated effort and regular discussion between UNMIL and the stakeholders; UNMIL should tell the Ministry of Justice which courts have no prosecutors.

Ms. J. Foster, Senior Gender Advisor, UNMIL

•Women have many civil legal problems that do require legal assistance (eg asserting their rights to land and property), so pro bono legal assistance should not be limited to criminal matters. Civil society might be able to help.

•UNMIL can help with the dissemination of treaties.

•It is important to bear in mind that traditional power relations impact on women’s access to justice.

•UNMIL is trying to persuade the CEDAW Committee to come to Liberia and see the problems for themselves. The Government might try to prepare the first report for 2008; this would leave enough time for information gathering.

Chair- Mr. A Abdelmoula, Deputy Chief, HRPS

• UNMIL is optimistic that this is a new era, and opportunity to be seized to allow lasting improvement. We must bear in mind that legal reform to facilitate the implementation of the treaties must be nationally-driven. Liberians must develop the national policy and UNMIL will assist in this process.

• To be sustainable, solutions must be nationally-owned. The stakeholders must show more commitment to sustainability, and civil society must drive the demand for legal reform, or the push will be one-sided (from the international community). Legal and institutional reform must be based on the human component and must begin with building the capacity of personnel.

Cllr. T.S. Gongloe, Solicitor General

• It is not acceptable for the international community to contribute to the hiring and training of people who are not qualified for legal appointments such as magistrates and prosecutors. Unqualified people are using their UNMIL training in lieu of real credentials. They claim that the UN recognises them as a prosecutor or magistrate and gave them training. UNMIL must not “become a co-conspirator” in supporting people who are unqualified from acting as magistrates and lawyers.

Chair- Mr. A Abdelmoula, Deputy Chief, HRPS

• In future, all UNMIL capacity-building programmes should be coordinated with national authorities to ensure only qualified personnel take part.

Representative of civil society

• Publication of the key points of the treaties would be useful, as would the establishment of forums for civil society to discuss the legislative amendments and new laws they would like to see passed.

• Civil society is also looking at security sector reform, particularly those aspects receiving less Government attention- fire services and customs.

Cllr. N.O. Tweh, President, National Bar Association

• Lawyers must be law graduates. The international community could assist by giving people incentives to study law. In the interim, all stakeholders and the international community need to act to solve the access to justice problem. Civil society can help with pro bono legal services but this requires funding. The NBA will encourage its members to render pro bono services.

Representative of UNDP

• UNDP has seconded five lawyers to AFELL to prosecute sexual and gender based violence cases (under the authority of the Ministry of Justice).

• UNDP will continue supporting the Ministry of Justice through AFELL and requires the CVs of candidate lawyers.

Atty. A.L. Brownell, President, Green Advocates

• The ratification of the treaties was not country-driven; even the people in the NTGL did not know the provisions of what they were ratifying.

• Capacity-building and awareness-raising on treaty ratification and implementation is required at all stages of the process.

• Public interest groups must be strengthened. The UNDP approach is very good. Lawyers must be sent to the field, with adequate remuneration.

• Training doesn’t go far enough to address ethics and corruption; recalled that he met a man who had been trained by UNMIL and who demanded a bribe.

• Information from the field is very important for ensuring reform efforts are based on fact. UNMIL has done a lot of reports on the situation in the field and this information would be useful.

• Collaboration between civil society and the Government is important.

Representative of civil society

• Suggested that UNMIL could help in publishing treaties for wide dissemination.

Closing remarks by the Chair- Mr. A Abdelmoula, Deputy Chief, HRPS

• Noted that there is a consensus that these meetings should continue on a regular basis.

• Due to the number of treaties signed, it would be impossible for UNMIL to provide adequate copies of all of them. However, if the national partners could collaborate with UNMIL in identifying the priority treaties and provisions, UNMIL could print those.

• Liberia’s treaty ratification process is similar to that in many jurisdictions. Not all 103 treaties have already been ratified and printed in the handbills. It is important to review the existing legislation to check whether it is in harmony with the international treaties. UNMIL HRPS will shortly begin a legal audit and will share the results with national partners.

•Civil society should take the initiative to hold its own forums on legal reforms. UNMIL and the national partners could be invited to participate. Civil society should take its own independent initiative in this regard.