Leymah Gbowee (left), Liberia’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner, speaking the Office of War and Economic Crimes Court Wednesday. Credit: Anthony Stephens/New Narratives.
Summary:
- Leymah Gbowee has called on Liberia’s Legislature to make the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court a statutory body.
- She has urged the government to cut spending on foreign travel and redirect funds to the Office and other national initiatives.
- Other advocates are divided over her proposal.
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
Leymah Gbowee, one of Liberia’s most celebrated peace activists, on Wednesday called on the country’s Legislature to pass a law making the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia a statutory body, thereby protecting it from the whims of a future president who may decide against holding the courts.
President Joseph Boakai established the Office in May 2024 in an executive order and renewed its mandate in April this year. Without further action, the Office’s current authorization will expire in April 2026.
Speaking at a lecture hosted by the Office to mark the 22nd anniversary of the signing of the Accra Peace Accord, Gbowee told an audience that included many school-age students that the Office must be fully independent.
“One of the things we’ve seen in our country consistently is that when one president goes, every other thing goes,” said Gbowee. “We do not want this to happen to this space. My presence here today is to show that I support this work with every fiber of my being. We need to begin to lobby lawmakers who understand there’s a need to pass this into law — to make it something solid that Liberian people can look at and say, ‘It is an institution.’”
In a photo taken during the second civil war in 2003, a Liberian child soldier carries a gun in Monrovia [Nic Bothma/EPA]
John Stewart, a commissioner of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, agreed with Gbowee’s call. “As it is, it’s just an ad hoc body,” he said in a phone call. “If it’s legislated, then it becomes a matter of direct budgetary support. If there is no executive order, there could be no movement.”
But not everyone supported the proposal. Lawrence Yealue, executive director of Accountability Lab Liberia, argued that making the Office permanent at this stage could stall the creation of the courts it is meant to establish.
“The Office is necessary at the moment,” he said by WhatsApp. “If an attempt is made to follow her argument, then there could be no court. This is not about giving people jobs but about justice for all, especially the victims and survivors.”
The Office is charged with overseeing the creation of both the War and Economic Crimes Court and the National Anti-Corruption Court, as well as guiding the broader transitional justice process. When renewing its mandate, Mr. Boakai pledged an annual budget of $2 million — or $500,000 per quarter — but the Office has so far received only $300,000, about 15 percent of the promised amount. By now, it should have been allocated at least $500,000.
In recent months, Boakai has taken several significant steps toward reconciliation, including the reburials of former presidents Samuel Doe and William R. Tolbert, two figures with controversial roles in Liberia’s civil crises, and delivering an open apology to victims of the country’s civil wars. These actions follow the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and have drawn praise from transitional justice advocates, including Gbowee.
Still, she and others said that more tangible investments are needed. Liberia’s lawmakers are among the highest paid in the world, earning far more than most citizens, she noted. Critics say Official government travel budgets – the president travels first class – and the large entourages who travel with officials, are not commensurate with the tiny size of the government’s annual revenue.
“The president, the way he is coming to go to the UN General Assembly, we don’t need plenty people to be following him,” Gbowee said. “Cut down some of those spendings, cut down other spendings, and put it to places that are important. By doubling the finances for this court, it shows they are invested not just in the courts, but in continuing the whole process of reconciliation in Liberia.”
Yealue was blunt. Just must be prioritized over everything else: “What is peace without justice? Delayed justice is painful. The culture of delayed justice is just sad.”
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.
