Human Rights Commission Nominees Ordered Re-Vetted

MONROVIA – Highly-placed and unimpeachable Senate insiders have explained why President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s nominees for the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHRC) are being recommended by the Senate for re-vetting.

The nominees include Cllr. M. Bedor-Wla Freeman, former vice president and later acting president of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL); Esther Selon-Cee, a graduate of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia; Joseph Cornomia, former member of the former ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP); Anthony Boakai, former newscaster of state radio station, ELBC; Losene Bility; and Clinton Layweh.

The Senate, according to insiders, ordered the re-vetting of the six nominees for various reasons last Thursday, following hours of behind-the-curtain discussions held at its chambers on Capitol Hill.

Insiders say members of the Upper House of the National Legislature had gathered that some of the nominees are relatives and close associates of a number of individuals indicted for war and economic crimes, violation of international humanitarian law, and other egregious violations as reflected in the Edited and Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The TRC had recommended the prosecution, on war crimes charges, of several individuals for their alleged roles in the Liberian armed conflict in which an estimated 250,000 persons were killed, and more than a million others internally and externally displaced.

Both private and public properties worth millions of dollars were also pillaged, ransacked and set ablaze by various ex-warring factions and other non-state actors during the country’s armed conflict, spanning over two decades.

Insiders hinted to the Daily Observer over the weekend that the Senate standing committees on Judiciary and Human Rights had been authorized to conduct re-vetting of all of the nominees.

The INHRC is expected to implement the findings and recommendations of the TRC whose two-year lifespan had expired.

According to sources, many members of the Upper House are of the view that Freeman, the nominated head of the INHRC, has only been a practicing journalist and is a law school graduate with no history of legal experience in any courtroom in Liberia.

Lawmakers reportedly believe that Freeman had also been a feature editor for The Inquirer newspaper, whose offices are located on Gurley Street in Central Monrovia.

Other senators, insiders explained, believed that Freeman lacks courtroom experience in addition to being ‘ignorant of prosecutorial procedures relative to violations of human rights and war crimes issues’.

Still other senators are said to be of the view that nominee Freeman is a very quiet and kindhearted man who tried to write the Code of Conduct for the PUL.

The senators, sources say, also feel that Freeman’s only direct contact with real legal work was when he served with the sexual offense unit of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and when he worked in the corporate law offices of Cllr. David A. B. Jallah, Dean of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law of the University of Liberia.

“With no experience in trying cases, especially criminal and human rights cases, which will dominate the work of the Commission, many are doubtful that the Commission, under Cllr. Freeman’s leadership, will not be able to effectively monitor human rights violations and handle the adjudication of cases in the manner required by international and national standards,” the Senate insiders quoted one of the senators as saying.

However, when contacted yesterday via mobile phone for comment on claims of legal inexperience, Freeman said he has the necessary legal training, competence and experience to serve on the commission.

Freeman, who was nominated by Sirleaf to serve as chairman of INHRC, said he has a wealth of legal experience spanning over 10 years and that he is well knowledgeable with legal, criminal and human rights issues, saying, “my records are there, let them check them.”

Other nominees for the INHRC could not be reached by the Daily Observer for comment.

However, some senators are contending that nominee Selon-Cee, who graduated less than five years ago from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, had only served as an in-house lawyer for the Liberian Water & Sewer Corporation. They argue that she has not conducted any trial, neither has she defended anyone in any court in the Republic of Liberia since her graduation from the law school – basic experience they deem necessary to meet the legal challenges that may be associated with the work of the INHRC.

Other sources also hinted that nominee Cornomia, a former member of Charles Taylor-led National Patriotic Party (NPP), who served as a lawmaker during the Taylor era, lacks experience as it relates to criminal and human rights matters.

The senators said Cornomia’s nomination to the Commission could present a serious problem for him when it comes to human rights violation issues, in which several NPP stalwarts had been associated in the TRC report.

Another person who is to be re-vetted is Anthony Boakai, a former ‘simple English’ newscaster of the government owned radio station, ELBC. At the moment, sources say Boakai is serving as deputy director for press at the Ministry of Finance. He is also said to be a student of law at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law of the UL. He is also former leader of the University of Liberia Muslim Students Association who, the senators said, became the executive director of Forerunner for Children’s Survival (FOCUS).

Commissioner Boakai, like his counterparts, according to legislative sources, has no courtroom experience, and never dealt with court cases involving human rights and criminal law.