Summary:
- Liberia's War and Economic Crimes Court Office chief dismissed a civil society-drafted bill to establish a war and economics crimes court as "mischief" and a "distraction," and said his office would submit its own draft bills to President Joseph Boakai within days.
- Civil society leaders, led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, defended their submission of an alternate bill to the Senate, saying delays are undermining the process and raising doubts about the Office's handling of the effort.
- The Office says it has received an additional $500,000 in government support, bringing total disbursements this fiscal year to $800,000 -- still $1.2 million short of the $2 million President Boakai pledged annually.
The Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia, the body tasked with establishing a war and economic crimes court and a National Anti-Corruption Court, has dismissed a newly submitted civil society bill to establish a war and economics crimes court as "mischief" and "a distraction," as divisions among justice advocates deepen over how -- and how quickly -- Liberia should move to create the long-promised tribunals.
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The civil society coalition, led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, submitted its draft bill last Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petitions. The coalition includes the some of the biggest civil society groups in the country including Transitional Justice Working Group, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy, the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia and the Coalition for Justice in Liberia.
The move undercut the Office of the court which was tasked by the president with drafting the bills. Office Executive Director, Barbu Jallah, has been promising to submit the bills to the president for months. A third set of bills, submitted by two senators in November and which would exclude prosecution of "international" crimes, further clouded the process.
Barbu said he did not intend to "fight" to kill the civil society bill, but he expressed confidence it would not advance.
"That is an exercise in futility," he said, arguing that only his Office had the legal mandate to draft the court legislation. "I am not really disturbed about a group of people who decides to act on their own."
Adama Dempster, secretary general of the Advocacy Platform, spoke on behalf of the coalition, saying the submission of the bills was designed to move the process faster, and framed it as a step toward preventing future violence. He said their decision was "not only about prosecution, but about prevention -- that if we move from this era, no one will again choose war or any act of violence that destabilizes our country."
The submission adds another proposal to an already crowded legislative landscape. In 2021, the Liberian National Bar Association submitted a draft law for a hybrid war and economic crimes court, a model transitional justice experts praised and treated as a foundation for future legislation. Then, in late October, Senator Joseph Jallah and Senate Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence Lawrence introduced two bills -- one covering wartime atrocities and another focused on economic crimes -- that would route cases through Liberia's domestic courts.
Those Senate bills have drawn criticism from advocates who say they sideline the widely supported hybrid international-domestic model, which experts said is essential to prosecuting "international crimes" such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Liberia lacks the domestic legal framework to prosecute such crimes, including forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, the killing of civilians and sexual slavery, among others.
In a recent exclusive interview, Fatou Bensouda, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and a leading global proponent of hybrid courts, cautioned Liberian lawmakers against establishing a tribunal that could be discredited before it begins because of public perception over impartiality.
The new civil society bill embraces the hybrid approach. But its submission -- drafted without the Office's direct involvement -- has deepened tensions among court advocates and exposed divisions that observers say had been largely private.
The split was visible at a transitional justice stakeholders' meeting held on Friday. Attendance was thin, something Barbu, acknowledged. He attributed the absences to other engagements.
Several key constituencies were absent, including the Human Rights Commission; the Women NGO Secretariat -- whose head or a representative normally co-chairs the meetings -- as well as the Liberia Council of Churches and the National Union of Organizations of persons with disabilities.
Some victims' groups and civil society actors have aligned themselves with the Office and Barbu. The Lutheran Massacre Survivors Association, one of Liberia's largest victims' and survivors' organizations, is among those backing the Office. The Liberian National Bar Association -- which led a united civil society effort to present the first court bill to the Legislature in 2021 -- was also represented at the meeting.
Barbu had previously told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that the Office planned to submit its own draft bills to President Boakai by January 2026. At Friday's meeting, he announced a tighter timeline.
"We are just at the verge of submitting to the president the two bills, both for the war and economic crimes court and for the National anti-corruption court within 11 days, for sure," he said in an interview. That indicates a deadline of December 16.
The United Nations Development Programme is also expected to hire a consultant to advise the Office and partners on security, location and funding for the courts. The consultant -- Liberian or foreign -- is expected to deliver a report within 60 to 65 days. UNDP is expected to make an offer this week. Barbu said the consultant's report would help inform key decisions tied to establishing the courts.
He also said he had the support of House Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon and other lawmakers for the passage of the Office's legislation.
Barbu accused some civil society leaders of acting in bad faith.
"From the inception of this office, these individuals you called were here," he said. "We engaged them. We even provided a space for them, but we knew fully aware they had something under their sleeves. This is not an office that anybody is going to manipulate. That's never going to happen."
Asked about reconciliation, he suggested personal motives were driving the dispute.
"Let me say to you, those individuals, I have contacted them many times. Whatever their issues are, whatever their personal interests are, I don't address personal interest," he said.
In May, the Office Office signed a cooperation agreement with the Independent National Commission on Human Rights to work together toward establishing the courts. Barbu said the Commission's decision to lead a separate drafting effort was "unfortunate."
"I've always announced in meetings, on radios and everything else, that this process [is] an all-inclusive process," he said. "If anybody has any reservation about anything, the office is here is open."
"It is," he said when asked whether it was a distraction. "It is for them more than me. I cannot condone distraction. I remain focused. For us, we remain poised, we remain calm."
Civil society leaders, led by the human Rights Commission, denied Barbu's allegations.
"Barbu doesn't know what he's doing," said Dempster Brown, chairman of the Commission. "We decided to draft a bill. We invited him, he refused to come. So, the civil society technicians and the human rights commission's technicians decided to draft a bill to the Senate, and they highly appreciated us."
Brown also rejected Barbu's accusations of betrayal. "What we want to do is to make sure that the president's efforts do not go in vain," Brown said. "The international community trusts my administration. We believe that delay is completely undermining the political will of the president."
Brown leveled personal criticism at Barbu.
"He doesn't take advice from anybody. He's arrogant. He feels that he knows everything. He doesn't know anything about human rights. Why he never did it until we submitted our bill? Is it not guilty conscience?" he asked.
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Experts said the ongoing public dispute could give opponents of the court more material to criticize the process.
Barbu also disclosed that the Office had received an additional $US500,000 in government support, bringing total government contributions this fiscal year to $US800,000 -- 40 percent of the $US2 million annual support President Boakai pledged to the Office in April.
"As we receive that amount of money, we announced the Liberian people that we're going to settle salaries, and we've been doing that, and we're going to work with our partners," Barbu said. "That's why we are able to go around the country again and I would like to commend the government. I've always said, there are challenges, there are competing priorities, but I've always expressed confidence that the government will come forth."
Still, future funding projections suggest a continued decline. The government's government's draft budget for 2026 allocates $1.3 million to the Office, with further reductions projected in 2027 and 2028. Most of that funding is earmarked for salaries.
International donors have made it clear that the government will likely be on its own in funding the War and Economics Crimes Court. Sweden, the only international donor that has contributed funds to support the Office, has announced its intention to withdraw from Liberia in 2026. The EU and US have said no funding would be forthcoming at this stage.
Advocates said the proposed cuts threaten to push the courts further from reality. Barbu said he was "not worried," but "concerned," and said he was working with lawmakers and executive officials on the issue, adding that he believed "considerations" were being made to address it.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia which had no say in the story's content.
