Liberia: Expert Warns of Security Risks if Legislature Fails to Approve War Crimes Court Before U.N. Security Council Presidency

Summary

• Transitional justice expert Aaron Weah warns that failure to approve legislation establishing Liberia’s long-delayed War and Economic Crimes Court could create new security risks, particularly among a young generation raised on memories of the civil wars.
• Liberia is preparing to assume the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council in December, putting a renewed international spotlight on the country’s unfinished transitional justice process.
• Weah says Liberia must address how the wars are remembered and taught, warning that the absence of an agreed historical narrative, public memorials and museums has left younger Liberians exposed to disinformation about the conflict.

Aaron Weah, the leading historian and transitional justice expert, has warned of security risks if the country fails to approve legislation establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court before it assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council in December.

Despite years of advocacy, the push for a long-delayed court to prosecute those accused of “bearing the greatest responsibility” for atrocities committed during Liberia’s two civil wars, which the United Nations estimates left about 250,000 people dead, remains unfinished as the Legislature has so far failed to overcome opposition to the courts among lawmakers.

A recent poll by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives found 89 percent of survey respondents in 11 counties wanted to see the worst perpetrators tried in a war crimes court for atrocities committed during the war.

“You don’t want to raise expectations of people and let them down. I think it has a lot of security risk because we have a youthful population,” Weah, director of the Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research, said in a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives interview.

Weah’s warning comes at a pivotal moment for Liberia’s unfinished transitional justice process. The country is preparing to preside over the Security Council for the first time while lawmakers consider competing proposals for the long-promised court. At the same time, a population dominated by young people who did not directly experience the wars is confronting unresolved questions about justice, reparations and how the conflict should be remembered and taught.

Weah said establishing the court is about more than prosecuting alleged perpetrators. He argued that it could help clarify Liberia’s wartime history and said abandoning the process after years of promises could create new resentment and security concerns.

His warning echoes concerns raised by the Liberian government and the United Nations. In an October 2025, statement to the U.N. General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with international legal issues, the government warned that “the absence of justice perpetuates the cycle of conflict.”

Liberia’s civil wars claimed an estimated 250,000 lives. Credit: Chris Hondros / Getty Images.

The United Nations has also linked the proposed court to preventing recurrence. Christian Mukosa, its top human rights official in Liberia, said that operationalizing a victim-centered court could “contribute to reconciliation and prevent recurrence.”

According to Liberia’s 2022 Population and Housing Census, three in every four of the country’s 5.25 million people were 35 or younger. Forty four percent of the population was born after the civil wars ended in 2003. Weah said many young Liberians have instead grown up with memories of the wars passed down by their parents. After taking the court process this far, he warned, abandoning it could have consequences beyond the justice debate.

Liberia’s official campaign graphic for its successful bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2026–2027. Credit: Government of Liberia

Liberia previously served on the Security Council in 1961, but the December presidency will be its first time chairing the body. The 81st United Nations General Assembly began September 8, with President Joseph Boakai expected to deliver his third address during the General Debate, which begins September 22.

Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court, recently urged Boakai to recall lawmakers from their annual constituency break to act on the legislation.

Six proposals involving a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court are before the Legislature. They include proposals from the Liberian National Bar Association and a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights; separate proposals from Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Senator Joseph Jallah; and two bills from the government’s court office.

Boakai reenergized the process when he renewed the Office’s mandate in May and later submitted its bills to the Legislature. But lawmakers went on their annual constituency break in July without approving legislation.

Before the recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee began consultations aimed at harmonizing the proposals, while more than 40 House members participated in a two-day technical session in Buchanan in June.

Some proposals have raised concerns among justice advocates over issues including the role of international experts and the appeals process. Senator Jallah has suggested international lawyers could serve as “consultants to Liberians”, rather than take direct roles.

“The final bill should include all benchmarks of fair, independent, meaningful and credible trials: crimes and modes of liability in line with international standards,” Michelle Reyes Milk, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, wrote in Just Security, a nonpartisan law and policy journal based at New York University School of Law. She also called for “full guarantees of due process for defendants” and “genuine participation and protection for victims and witnesses.”

Weah said Liberia’s Security Council role could showcase the country’s progress since the wars. He pointed to the success of international peacekeeping and the peaceful resolution of the closely fought 2023 presidential election as signs of the country’s resilience.

But he warned that sustaining that progress requires Liberia to confront how its wars are remembered and taught to younger generations.

“We have no public memorials. We have not agreed on a historical text on the war to teach kids in school,” Weah said. “And so much of what the children learn that’s passed for history is mostly the opinions of history teachers, is the opinions of civic teachers in school, and that’s dangerous.”

Weah said museums, memorials and other forms of public education could give younger Liberians a more structured understanding of the country’s past and help address violent memories transmitted from one generation to another.

Liberia has made some steps up efforts to address memorialization. A high-level government delegation has returned from a United Nations Development Program-supported study mission to Rwanda and South Africa in late August and early September, where it examined approaches to reconciliation, memorialization, peacebuilding and preserving national history. The lessons are expected to inform President Boakai’s proposed Liberia Peace, Reconciliation and Memorial Museum, envisioned as a national institution to preserve the country’s history, promote reconciliation and strengthen civic education.

TRC’s Controversial Decision to Sanction President Johnson Sirleaf Remains a Point of Debate

But Liberia’s efforts to establish an authoritative account of the wars have themselves generated controversy. More than 15 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final report, parts of its findings remain contested.

The commission recommended a 30-year public-office ban for a number of people, including then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, because it said they had been associated with former warring factions. In 2011, Liberia’s Supreme Court struck down the sanction as unconstitutional, finding that it had been imposed without due process.

Liberian civilians flee Paynesville amid fighting between rebel forces and the Armed Forces of Liberia on Aug. 10, 1990, during the country’s first civil war. Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images.

In testimony to the U.S. Congress in June 1990, as Taylor’s rebellion was terrorizing people across the country, Sirleaf portrayed Taylor’s uprising as a broad-based struggle, saying people, “many of them children,” had joined what she called a “struggle for freedom,” and describing the rebellion as an opportunity to transform Liberia’s political system. (Taylor’s alleged use of child soldiers was seen as a particularly egregious act that was copied by other warring factions in years to come.)

Weah argued that the commission’s treatment of Sirleaf contributed to her reluctance to champion implementation of its recommendations and questioned whether the report sufficiently established the extent of her involvement in the conflict.

“I think she felt embarrassed. She felt stigmatized,” Weah said. “Before you mention the names of people in report, there has to be a duty of care to make sure that your work is thorough, is rigorous. It can stand up to basic scrutiny.”

John Stewart, a commissioner who chaired the committee that wrote the TRC report, rejected Weah’s criticism. He said Sirleaf was sanctioned because commissioners concluded that her testimony about when she distanced herself from Charles Taylor conflicted with evidence they had obtained.

“We did not do so because we wanted to embarrass Sirleaf,” Stewart said. “We did so because we wanted to be fair to all others. And her being president was no exception to the rule.”

The disagreement underscores the difficulty Liberia still faces in establishing a broadly accepted account of its violent past — the problem Weah says younger generations should not be left to navigate alone.

Against that backdrop, Weah recently co-launched Liberia: Remembering the Future with British journalist Gerry Naughton. The podcast, airing on 10 radio stations across Liberia, examines the country’s history, its transition from war to peace and its election to the Security Council.

Weah said the project aims to provide historical context and clarification for Liberians, particularly younger people, as well as international audiences seeking to understand the country as its global profile rises.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.