» Grants List, 2006
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» Grantee Profile: Green Advocates
Less than three years after descending into civil strife and violence, Liberia held elections—deemed free and fair by election observers—in November 2005 that brought Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to the presidency. Security throughout the country is improving, allowing communities to begin to rebuild and creating greater access for humanitarian and Liberian civil society organizations. Teachers, district chiefs, and government officials have been re-deployed around the country. Despite this turn-around in the country’s political landscape, critical threats to human rights remain. Ex-combatants continue to control some mining and timber areas, the justice system has yet to reach effectively beyond the capital, and allies of former President Charles Taylor—who is facing charges before Sierra Leone’s Special Court for gross human rights violations—continue to occupy important positions within the government.
Fund grantees express cautious optimism about the future, but suggest that prospects for establishing the rule of law and achieving peace in Liberia will depend, in large part, on the capacity of the Johnson-Sirleaf Administration and international donors to address rampant public sector corruption and the illegal extraction of natural resources which have fueled violence in the sub-region for more than a decade. Many of the Fund’s Liberian grantees devote their energies to promoting the rule of law, challenging corruption, and pushing the government to foster the development of governance, economic, security, social and justice reforms. In particular, the Fund supports some of Liberia’s long-standing human rights groups as they rebuild and is identifying newer organizations, some in rural areas and others women-led, to support as they develop their human rights programs.
