UNDP Liberia

HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION AND GENDER PROGRAMME

The UNDP Human Rights Protection and Gender Programme started in August 2002 before the Accra Comprehensive Peace Accord brokered by the International Contact Group on Liberia came into existence.

Objectives:

• Protection of the rights of IDPs.

Until August 2002, protection and general human rights concerns of IDPs where largely neglected due to a combination of a serious lack of resources and a lack of competent persons or organizations to take on this role. The UNDP Protection programme concentrated on three main activities, monitoring and reporting, awareness raising and advocacy, and training and capacity building.

The Protection Programme was implemented in collaboration with other humanitarian partners, the relevant government institutions, namely the Liberia Refugee Resettlement and Repatriation Commission the Ministries of Justice, Gender and Development, Health and Social Welfare, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. As part of its monitoring and reporting activities, a key aspect was the deployment of 20 trained protection monitors to act as permanent and visible protection and human rights presence in the IDPs camps.

The Human Rights and Protection Programme aims to create greater awareness of human rights issues at all levels of society and to strengthen the national institutions dedicated to monitoring and ensuring adherence to the principles of human rights. In October 2003 the programme was revised to accommodate the Accra Peace Agreement. The focus of the programme shifted from IDPs to incorporating a broader human rights and justice focus both at the community and policy level:

• Community level interventions through the overall UNDP Governance Programme

• Capacity building of national human rights institutions and line ministries

• Influencing policies on human rights and protection.

• Mainstreaming human rights and gender in UNDP programmes

Due to the specific challenges in Liberia, the programme incorporates a strong gender component.

There are 5 projects under the programme:

•  Protection of IDPS,

•  Economic Empowerment for Women,

•  Capacity Building Support for the TRC,

•  Democratic Thematic Trust Funds, Addressing Sexual Exploitation,

•  Abuse & Gender Based Violence in Post Conflict Liberia

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is central to both the healing and development processes and UNDP has been supporting the TRC from its very genesis. By translating the TRC Act into plain English and distributing the Act in pamphlet form UNDP is helping to make the TRC accessible and understandable to all Liberians.
UNDP is directly providing operational and technical support to the TRC through it's ‘Mapping of the Conflict' Project' which has compiled over 13,500 testimonies, including video and photographic evidence, detailing human rights violations during the Liberian Civil War.

PRIORITIES FOR 2008:
• Support the TRC and the reconciliation process
• Support the INHRC and other national human rights institutions
• Work towards a national plan of action of human rights for Liberia
• Jointly implement the Economic Empowerment of Women project with CBR Programme -View Report