In an effort to popularize Liberia’s Accepted Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Rescue Alternatives Liberia (RAL) has compiled all Liberia’s Accepted UPR recommendations and distributed to public, intellectual and hatai centers as well as ordinary citizens across the country.
Speaking Thursday December 10, 2020, RAL’s National Coordinator, Sam M. Nimely said the organization deems it necessary to popularize these recommendations so that Liberians will know their country’s human rights obligations to the international community.
Mr. Nimely also said the purpose of sharing the copy of the recommendations with the public is to afford citizens and foreign residents the opportunity to have an insight of regional and international treaty bodies accepted, ratified and signed by Liberia.
“In this document, the recommendations marked supported are the ones Liberia accepted to implement,” Mr. Nimely said.
In November 2020, Liberia’s human rights record was reviewed by the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the council used the UPR recommendations during the review.
“As we are trying our best for Liberians to have access to this document, we encourage you and appreciate were you to read these recommendations. Some of them have to be domesticated into national laws,” he added.
Over three thousand copies of the accepted recommendations were distributed in 2019 and additional 2000 in 2020 with support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with funding from the United Nations Peace Building Funds.
Receiving the recommendations Thursday December 10, 2020, the Acting Chairman of the U-2 Intellectual Center in the Township of Westpoint, McPhearson Daweh thanked Rescue Alternatives Liberia, saying information is power.
Daweh assured RAL that they will utilize the booklet fully even during their normal session to ensure everyone understands it very well.
At the same time, Jeremiah Sieh of the Fernado Intellectual Center in WestPoint has commended the organization for what he calls ‘resourceful materials’ given at the ‘right time’ to the intellectual center.
“We will make use of this material because it is very essential to us,” he said.
For his part, Jacob N. Blamo of the Friends of Friends Hatai Center on Carey Street said he was overjoyed with what he calls ‘essential document’ from RAL.
The recommendations are used by the United Nations Human Rights Council to review Liberia’s human rights record every four year. The UPR is United Nations Mechanism put in place to review the human rights record of member states every four year.
RAL is a registered and recognized criminal justice system reform; death penalty abolition and anti-torture advocacy group established in 1994.
The group is a member of several national, regional and international networks/coalitions, including Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG); Liberia Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (LICHRD); West Africa Human Rights Defenders Networks (WAHRDN); Pan African Human Rights Defenders Networks (PAHRDN); The World Coalition against the Death Penalty (WCADP) and International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture (IRCT).