ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

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1 ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY BUREAU 08 August 2013 REPORT OF THE FACT-FINDING MISSION OF THE ACP-EU JPA BUREAU TO LIBERIA 29 TO 31 MAY 2013 Louis MICHEL (ALDE, BE), Co-President, Co-Head of the Delegation Nita J. DEERPALSING (Mauritius), Vice-President, Co-Head of the Delegation and Derek VAUGHAN (S & D, UK), Vice-President Niccolò RINALDI (ALDE, IT), Member Edwin BANDA (Malawi), Vice-President Fitz JACKSON (Jamaica), Member EN 1 EN

2 1. Introduction At its meeting of 20 March 2013 in Brussels the Bureau of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) decided to send a fact-finding mission to Liberia in May The objective of the fact-finding mission was to take stock of the political situation in Liberia as part of the JPA involvement in political dialogue under Article 8 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, which provides that the dialogue shall be conducted ( ) within and outside the institutional framework, including the ACP Group, the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, in the appropriate format, and at the appropriate level including national, regional, continental or all-acp level. The mission was undertaken from 29 to 31 May 2013 and held extensive and open discussions with Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Government Representatives, political parties, civil society and non-state actor representatives, and the United Nations. 2. Exchange of views with Government Representatives Mr. Sylvester Grisby, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, outlined some of the development challenges of the country. He reminded the mission that the country was still in a post conflict restructuration process and reforms were on-going in areas such as public financing, procurement, constitutional review and elections, justice, and land ownership. The Constitution Review Committee, which was also set up to address some of the root causes of past internal conflicts, was yet to finalise its work. According to the Vice-President Joseph Boakai, poverty is a serious challenge for the country. While efforts have been made to improve the access to health and basic education, much more still needed to be done. Infrastructure development, to a very large extent financed by the EU, was a major tool for economic growth and trade. Vice-President Boakai also highlighted issues related to land administration, which was a source of conflict between local populations and environmental concerns on the one hand, and agricultural, logging and mining interests on the other hand. With regard to Foreign Affairs, the Vice-President stated that Liberia was very active in ECOWAS and the Mano River Union. Liberia had also been faced with some refugees who had fled from Cote d'ivoire during the political crisis that followed the 2010 elections. The Acting Minister of Finance briefed the mission on the Government s agenda for transformation, dubbed Liberia Rising 2020, a strategy of broad participation and inclusive growth to enable Liberia to build the human resource capacity needed while forging a stronger sense of citizenship, national cohesion and responsive governance towards reaching middle income status by The Minister called for a division of labour among donors in order to avoid duplication of efforts and reduce administrative pressure on the government. The Acting Minister highlighted some misunderstandings with the system of EU budget support. Members emphasised that budget support was intended to supplement local resources and not to replace them. 2

3 3. Meetings with other Governmental bodies a. Minister of Internal Affairs and the Acting Chairperson of the Governance Commission as well as key members of the Governance Commission The Governance Commission is in charge of capacity building, political dialogue, the post conflict situation, constitutional reform. The Commission expressed concern about the planned reduction of UNMIL forces. One of the consequences of this decision was that Police services would have to be increased by 100%, and the country's long borders would be left unguarded in the time it would take the Government to put in place alternative measures. b. Chairperson of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) The CRC is a presidentially appointed committee of 7 people tasked with the responsibility of managing the process to review Liberia s 1986 Constitution through consultations with the people and propose recommendations for amendments to the Constitution, which was adopted by only 500 people in a military environment in It therefore needed to be amended to make it responsive to the post-conflict reform process. The Committee will review the judicial system, executive and legislative terms of office, citizenship, the formation and functioning of political parties and decentralization of governance. For instance, the President currently appoints almost all the Heads of public institutions, including the County Governors. The recommendations of the Commission will remain in the public domain for 12 months before they are considered by the legislature. The recommendations must be passed by two-thirds vote in the lower and upper Houses of the Legislature and approved by the electorate by referendum, schedules for The Chairperson of the Commission stated that it is important for the Commission to be, and be perceived as independent. In addition to the inadequate levels of staffing and funding, the sole prerogative of the President to nominate all the members of the Commission constituted a major problem in terms of perceptions of its independence. c. Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) The NEC was the only body charged with conducting elections. The Commissioners were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for terms of 7 years. The Commission had proposed reforms to the electoral law for consideration by the legislature. The Commission had 19 offices spread across the country, but it admitted that it was difficult to organise elections in remote areas given the poor state of roads and security threats, as well as the large number of political parties that participate in elections 32 for a population of 3.5 million. The Constitution gave substantial powers to the NEC to deregister political parties through the due process of law reform. 3

4 4. Meetings with the Speaker and Representatives of the Legislature and the two major political parties The Speaker of the House Alex J. Tyler, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Gbehzohngar M. Findley, and members of the ACP-EU JPA Committee of the Liberian Legislature exchanged views with Members of the Mission on various aspects of the Liberian legislature and politics in general. The legislature was composed of the Senate (30 Senators, 2 per County, elected for 9 years) and the House of Representatives (73 Members, elected for 6 years). The Members meet from January until July or early September, whenever the budget was voted. Most of the political parties were not strong enough to mount a strong challenge to the two dominant parties, the Unity Party (UP) in power, and in the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), which were better organised. There was a tendency for most parties to be sponsored and led by affluent personalities during the elections period, and if not taking part in the ruling coalition, they ceased to exist thereafter. In order to strengthen the capacity of political parties in strengthening democracy, most parties called for the adoption of a legal framework for the funding of political parties. It was also acknowledged that the legislature faced a number of constraints in carrying out its functions vis-à-vis the Executive, which often had more time, resources and experts to commit to the drafting of bills. 5. Meeting with representatives of civil society organisations The most active and better organised civil society organisations are based in the capital, Monrovia. However, funding and in some cases lack of clearly defined objectives and methodology hampered their work. Most civil society organisations were very critical of politics, which they considered plutocratic and corrupt. Representatives of civil society referred to many cases of abuse of the electoral process and the judicial system. The over centralisation of political authority in Monrovia, and in particular in the Presidency, was one area cited for urgent need of political reform. However, it was acknowledged that civil society now had easier access to government officials unlike in the past, and that freedom of the press and a very active print and electronic media had enabled civil society to expose many social, political and economic vices. Nevertheless, the main concern of civil society was that 15 years after the civil war, the quality of life for many people had not changed much. They also expressed concern at the politicisation of county development funds due to the powerful influence of local legislators. 6. Meeting with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Chief justice Francis Kapor and other Justices briefed the mission on the on-going rehabilitation of the judicial system. He admitted that because of the need to ensure the speedy restoration of the rule of law, some of the personnel recruited into the system in the early days were ill qualified for their jobs, especially at associate magistrate level where 4

5 legal education was not a requirement. Although the judiciary sponsored a good number of students to law school, it was not possible to deploy all of them into the system because of inadequate funds, difficult supervision and the unattractiveness of serving in remote rural areas with poor communications infrastructure. Concerning allegations of corruption and inefficiency levelled at the Judiciary, the Chief Justice stated that this could be partly attributed to lack of appreciation of the role of the courts in the entire legal system. The latter is suffering from the same deficiencies as the entire state which authority is not effective countrywide. Lengthy pre-trial detention periods, poor standards of investigation, evidence gathering and prosecution by state institutions and officials also resulted in many miscarriages of justice for which the judiciary was wrongly held solely responsible. However, in cases where judicial officers, including lawyers, were found guilty of unethical behaviour, appropriate sanctions had been applied. In terms of the court process, the jury system was singled out as a major weakness of the system and the most susceptible to corruption. Given the high levels of poverty and the low levels of education, the jury system placed inordinate pressure on poor, uneducated jurors to follow complex legal arguments and intricacies of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which depends a lot on the quality of legal counsel on both sides of a case rather than on the investigative powers of the Judge such as is the case in the Roman civil law system. Reforms to address the weaknesses are being proposed, together with sensitisation measures for the public to better understand court procedure. 7. Meeting with the SRSG, Head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) The United Nations Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) had played a major role in ending the 15 year conflict and stabilising the country, which had made Liberia an example of successful post conflict transition. According to Karin Landgren, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG), the military presence of the UN will be reduced from to 3500 by In the intervening period, the major focus of UNMIL will be to assist the Government to establish a credible police service capable of responding to the security needs of the country especially in light of the Presidential elections scheduled for Given the prevalence of security issues elsewhere in the region, the SRSG highlighted the importance of a regional approach in addressing such issues. The SRSG maintained that having a strong security sector would not be tenable in the longrun in the absence of measure to address other pressing social, economic and political issues such as corruption, especially in the award of concessions, land administration, which is a potential source of conflict, transparent and equitable administration of revenues from natural resources, and over centralisation or concentration of economic activities and political authority in Monrovia. 8. Conclusions Liberia is faced with enormous developmental challenges and institutional constraints which need the requisite political will among all the state and non-state stake holders to 5

6 overcome. The mission commends the Government for the progress made on many economical indicators, as well as in the areas of basic health and education. The mission values the Government for launching the process of Constitutional review, and hopes that this process will lead to a stable, more democratic and accountable system of governance and common national identity. The mission believes that electoral reform is indispensable to the process of transformation of Liberian society, governance and legislative process. The mission would like to encourage efforts to improve the legal framework in view of the importance of an efficient and accessible judicial system to the proper functioning of democracy, accountability and transparency and the fight against corruption. The mission is concerned about the planned reduction of UNMIL forces during the period given security threats in the region, and the prospect of highly competitive Presidential elections in In this regard, the Mission calls on the UN to reconsider the planned withdrawal of its forces until after the 2017 elections. The implementation of security sector reform in the next two to four years will be key for the continued stability. Liberia is endowed with rich land, natural resources and biodiversity. A judicious management of these resources, taking into account the importance of environmental protection as well as the needs of local communities, is essential to contribute to sustainable development, lifting people out of poverty and the consolidation of peace. The EU has been a major contributor of budget support to Liberia. While the mission recommends the maintenance of this support, the use of budget support should be followed up thoroughly by the EU Delegation and particular attention should be paid to the visibility EU funds in project implementation. 6

7 ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY Fact-finding mission of the ACP-EU JPA Bureau to Liberia Programme May May 2013 Tuesday 28 May 2013 Arrival of Members from Brussels: Flight AF826 Paris CDG Monrovia Transfer to hotel Wednesday 29 May Meeting with the EU Delegation (Venue: EU Delegation) Meeting with Sylvester Grisby, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs (Venue: Ministry of Foreign Affairs ) :40 Meeting with Vice-President J. Boakai (Venue: Capitol Building) Meeting with Karin Landgren, Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG), Head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) (venue: Pan African Plaza) 15: Meeting with Gordon Sulonteh, Deputy/Acting Minister of Finance (Venue: Ministry of Finance ) Meeting with Morris Dukuly. Minister of Internal Affairs and Mrs Elizabeth Mulbah, Acting Chairperson of the Governance Commission as well as key members of the Governance Commission 7

8 (Venue: Ministry of Internal Affairs) 17: Meeting with Counsellor Gloria Scott, Chairperson of the Constitutional Review Committee (Venue: the Constitutional Review Committee ) Dinner hosted by Alex J. Tyler, Speaker of the House (Venue: The Royal Grand Hotel) Thursday 30 May Meeting with Cllr Jerome Korkoya, Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) (Venue: the NEC) Meeting with Alex J. Tyler, Speaker of the House, Gbehzohngar M. Findley, President Pro Tempore of the Senate and members of the ACP- EU JPA Committee of the Liberian Legislature (Venue: The Legislature) Lunch, hosted by Alex J. Tyler, Speaker of the House (Venue: Legislature) Meeting with Senator Theodore Momo, Caucus Chairman of the Unity Party and members thereof (Venue: Headquarters Unity Party) Meeting with Representative Thomas Fallah, Caucus Chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change, and members thereof (Venue: Legislature) Meeting with the Caucus Chairmen or replacement from opposition parties represented in the Legislator: the Liberty Party, the Movement for Progressive Change, the National Democratic Coalition, the Liberia Transformation Party, the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, the Liberia Destiny Party, the National Union for Democratic Progress, the National Patriotic Party and the independent members of the House of Representatives (Venue: Right wing of the House) Dinner hosted by Attilio Pacifici, EU Head of Delegation with EU HoMs and ACP ambassadors 8

9 (Venue: Residence of the HoD, Sinkor) Friday 31 May Meeting with Francis Korkpor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Venue: the Supreme Court) 11: Meeting with civil society organisations (venue: EU Delegation) 12:00 13:00 Debriefing (venue: EU Delegation) Press Conference and Sandwich lunch (venue: EU Delegation) 9