MONROVIA – A prominent women’s rights body has turned a former vice president’s illness into a test of Liberia’s conscience. The Angie Brooks International Centre has publicly praised the police for rushing former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor to medical care in custody. Yet its message pointedly refuses to treat that care as a favor owed to the powerful. The centre insists the same humanity must reach every detainee, however poor or obscure. Its statement lands amid a charged prosecution that has gripped the entire nation. The group backs the war on drugs but warns against sacrificing due process to it. As THE ANALYST reports, the group indicated that an arrest, it firmly reminds the public, is simply not a conviction.
The Angie Brooks International Centre for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security (ABIC) has commended the Liberia National Police for securing medical attention for former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor after she reportedly fell ill in police custody, but says the real test of justice will be whether an unknown, poor and politically powerless detainee can expect exactly the same treatment.
Against the backdrop of Liberia’s intensifying campaign against narcotics trafficking and the arrest of one of the country’s most prominent former officials, ABIC warned Tuesday that the legitimate fight against drugs cannot become an excuse for degrading treatment, punishment before conviction or selective application of constitutional rights. Medical care, legal representation, due process and human dignity, it said, belong equally to every accused person.
ABIC Commends Police
In a statement issued August 25, 2026, ABIC said the decision of the Liberia National Police to obtain immediate medical care for Howard-Taylor when she became ill in custody represented the responsible exercise of state authority.
“We commend the Liberia National Police, for acting decisively and promptly to ensure that the former Vice President received the medical attention she required,” the organization said.
Howard-Taylor’s scheduled appearance before court was suspended while her health condition was being addressed.
ABIC said protecting her life and well-being under those circumstances was “the responsible and humane course of action.”
The statement was signed by Cllr. Dr. Yvette Chesson-Gibson, ABIC Executive Director, Initiator of the Women’s Situation Room and founding member of The Lappa Revolution, and Hon. Olubanke King-Akerele, Chair of ABIC’s Board of Directors and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce and Industry.
But beyond the commendation came a pointed challenge to Liberia’s security establishment.
No Privilege for the Powerful
ABIC said the treatment accorded Howard-Taylor must not become another illustration of a familiar inequality in which prominent Liberians receive protections that ordinary citizens struggle to obtain.
“This action must not be misunderstood as preferential treatment, nor should medical care ever be regarded as a privilege reserved for prominent persons,” the organization declared.
For ABIC, the former Vice President’s political stature is beside the point.
The organization said every person who enters police custody—irrespective of political affiliation, social status, gender, nationality or the seriousness of the accusation—is entitled to humane treatment and necessary medical attention.
It therefore wants security institutions to turn what happened in Howard-Taylor’s case into a national standard.
“We therefore call upon the Liberia National Police and all other security institutions to make the treatment afforded to former Vice President Howard-Taylor the standard for every person in custody,” ABIC said.
That means, the organization stressed, that a market woman, commercial motorcyclist, student, foreign national, opposition politician, government official or any other suspect who becomes genuinely ill in detention must receive appropriate medical attention without discrimination.
Constitution Follows Detainee Into Cell
ABIC anchored its demand firmly in Liberia’s Constitution, arguing that arrest does not strip an individual of fundamental rights.
The organization specifically invoked Article 21, which protects arrested and detained persons against torture and inhumane treatment and establishes safeguards governing detention.
It also emphasized the constitutional requirement that an arrested person be formally charged and presented before a court of competent jurisdiction within 48 hours.
Where a genuine medical emergency disrupts that process, ABIC said authorities still have an obligation to proceed transparently and lawfully.
“Where a genuine medical emergency temporarily interrupts that process, the authorities must continue to act transparently, responsibly and in accordance with the Constitution and applicable law,” it said.
The intervention places an important constitutional question alongside the heated political debate surrounding Howard-Taylor’s detention: whether Liberia can wage an uncompromising campaign against narcotics trafficking without compromising the legal protections owed to suspects.
ABIC says it can—and must.
‘An Arrest Is Not a Conviction’
The organization also issued a strong caution against treating criminal allegations as established guilt.
“An arrest is not a conviction,” ABIC declared.
A charge, it stressed, remains an allegation until prosecutors establish it through admissible evidence before a competent court.
The organization reminded the public that every accused person enjoys the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
That protection, ABIC argued, does not disappear because allegations are politically explosive, because public anger is intense or because an accused person once occupied high public office.
The organization consequently drew a clear line between the responsibilities of investigators, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges.
Police investigate suspected crimes, collect evidence and make lawful arrests. Prosecutors carry the State’s case. Defense lawyers protect the rights of accused persons and challenge the evidence presented against them.
Courts decide guilt.
“It is the courts, not the police, political actors, the media or the public, that determine guilt or innocence after both sides have been given a fair opportunity to present and test the evidence,” ABIC said.
Police Cannot Become Punisher
ABIC was equally emphatic about the limits of police authority once a suspect is arrested.
“The police must never mete out punishment,” the organization warned.
Pretrial detention, it said, cannot lawfully become punishment by another name.
It must never be transformed into “a form of punishment, humiliation, intimidation or revenge.”
Any punishment that ultimately follows a criminal conviction, ABIC stressed, belongs exclusively to a competent court acting within the law.
The warning carries particular weight amid intense public reaction to Liberia’s narcotics crisis and the detention of Howard-Taylor.
ABIC’s position is that public anger over drugs, however understandable, cannot replace the criminal justice process.
No Retreat From Drug Fight
The organization nevertheless left no ambiguity about its position on Liberia’s worsening drug problem.
It described narcotics as a dangerous scourge threatening young people, families, communities, state institutions and national security.
ABIC said it supports determined investigation, arrest and prosecution wherever credible evidence exists.
That accountability, it said, must extend beyond people physically caught transporting narcotics to those who finance, facilitate, protect, transport or profit from the trade.
“No individual should be considered above the law,” the statement declared.
But ABIC warned that the government cannot defend the rule of law by disregarding it.
“Our determination to eradicate drugs must not cause us to abandon the constitutional and human-rights principles that define a lawful society,” the organization said.
The argument places ABIC between two competing currents in the national debate: the demand for an aggressive response to the drug crisis and growing concerns that political passions surrounding high-profile arrests could undermine due process.
Its position is that Liberia does not have to choose between the two.
Same Law, Same Humanity
ABIC said the strength of Liberia’s criminal justice system cannot be measured merely by how many people security forces arrest or how many cases prosecutors take to court.
The manner in which suspects are treated matters just as much.
“The strength of our justice system will be measured not only by the number of arrests and prosecutions it undertakes, but also by the fairness, professionalism and humanity with which every suspect is treated,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the organization wants every detainee who becomes ill to receive prompt and appropriate medical attention.
Every suspect should also have access to legal counsel, be informed of the allegations against him or her, be brought before court within the requirements of law and be protected against abuse, degrading treatment and punishment before conviction.
These safeguards, ABIC insists, cannot depend on whether television cameras are watching, whether lawyers are politically influential or whether the detainee carries a famous name.
Jewel Case Becomes a Benchmark
The detention of Howard-Taylor has attracted intense national and international attention because of her previous positions as Vice President and First Lady and because of the gravity of the allegations now surrounding Liberia’s wider narcotics investigations.
Her medical emergency consequently placed the conduct of the police under immediate scrutiny.
ABIC believes the police acted correctly when they sought medical intervention.
The larger question is what happens when the next sick detainee is somebody Liberia does not know.
That, in the organization’s reasoning, is where the principle of equal justice will be tested.
“We again commend the Liberia National Police for responding quickly when medical intervention became necessary,” ABIC said. “We urge them to apply this same standard of care consistently and without discrimination to all persons who come under their authority.”
Drug War Meets Rule of Law
ABIC’s intervention adds another voice to a widening national debate over how Liberia should prosecute an increasingly alarming narcotics crisis without damaging the constitutional order it seeks to defend.
The organization supports pursuing drug financiers, facilitators, protectors, transporters and profiteers. It supports arrest and prosecution where credible evidence exists. It also accepts the fundamental principle that nobody—including a former Vice President—is above the law.
But the reverse principle, it argues, carries equal force: nobody falls beneath the protection of the law merely because the accusation against that person is grave.
That means a suspect can be investigated vigorously without being humiliated. A detainee can be prosecuted without being denied medical care. A politically powerful defendant can be held accountable without political vengeance, just as an ordinary citizen can be detained without surrendering basic human dignity.
“Liberia can vigorously confront drug trafficking while respecting human dignity, due process and the rule of law. Indeed, we must do both,” ABIC declared.
Its final words reduced the argument to a standard it wants Liberia’s police, prosecutors and security institutions to carry beyond the Howard-Taylor controversy:
“Justice loses its legitimacy when it abandons humanity, and humanity must remain at the heart of justice.”
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