Political Unrest in North Africa and the Mideast - Graphic. In Liberia, President Johnson Sirleaf's Past Sullies her Clean Image. Six years on from the end of Liberia's long and bloody civil war, the country is finally on the mend.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund regularly applaud President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Africa's first elected woman leader — on the huge strides she's making to stamp out corruption and rebuild her shattered country. That image has now taken a hit. In its final report, released yesterday, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a body modeled on South Africa's historic truth commission, says Johnson Sirleaf should be banned from government for 30 years for her early support of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Taylor, who played a central role in Liberia's conflict, is on trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity that stem from his part in the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. The Commission's 370-page report collected more than 20,000 statements and took three years and several million dollars to complete.
Perhaps. Lessons for Kenya from Liberia’s TRC. By MAKAU MUTUA This week I have decided to suspend my ‘‘open letter’’ so that I can address the lessons of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Kenya.
The ‘‘open letter’’ will be back next week unless an epochal event happens. Except for the election in 2005 of Ms Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia’s President, there had not been much to celebrate about that famous country for decades. But Liberia has made Africa proud again by the recommendations of its TRC which are bold, decisive and pioneering. If fully implemented, the TRC’s recommendations could strike a fatal blow to impunity in Liberia.
Liberia, a country torn by the most vicious atrocities for decades, has done what Kenya, with its boast of more enlightenment, has been unable to do. After a long and painstaking process, Liberia’s TRC has issued a verdict that is the dream of those who seek transitional justice. It has spared no one in its findings and has, in fact, taken aim at the mightiest and the most powerful. Liberian Leader Receives Warm Welcome On Staten Island - NY1.com. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf paid a visit Tuesday to Staten Island, which has one of the highest concentrations of Liberians outside of Africa. To view our videos, you need to enable JavaScript. Learn how . install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now . Then come back here and refresh the page. Nearly a thousand people packed the auditorium of Curtis High School Tuesday night -- most of them Liberian -- all for the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the president of their homeland, Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
"Let me say how pleased I am to be here. Political Unrest in North Africa and the Mideast - Graphic.
Book Summary of Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding by Lisa Schirch. Lisa Schirch, , Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005. This Book Summary written by: Michelle Maiese, Conflict Research Consortium Introduction Lisa Schirch suggests that the importance of ritual and symbol in solving complex, deep-rooted conflicts is often overlooked. Peacebuilding should be thought of as a stage that must be constructed so as to engage people's emotions and senses and capture their imagination and interest. In addition to direct and linear modes of peacebuilding and conflict transformation (such as principled negotiation), practitioners need to rely more on ritual. Ritual has three specific characteristics. In Schirch's view, rituals should be understood as symbolic physical actions that require interpretation. Ritual includes a wide array of activities, which may be religious or secular, traditional or improvised, formal or informal, forming or transforming, and destructive or constructive.
The Dimensions of Conflict Worldviews The Functions of Ritual Conclusion.