In The News: The Rule of Law

June 24, 2020
The Right to Know in Bangladesh: ‘They Now Call Me “Madame”’
Published by USAID.
Laura Neuman, a director at The Carter Center, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization working in more than 80 countries, tells the story of a Bangladeshi woman who told her father that she was meeting with Dhaka officials in an effort to get street lights in her neighborhood. "You’re just a young girl. They won't pay attention to you," the father scoffed at his 20-something daughter.

June 18, 2018
Liberia Women Gaining Access to Information
Published by Africa 54, Voice of America.
As Liberia continues to recover from a decade-long civil war and the devastating effects of the Ebola outbreak, Liberian women are beginning to find their voices with the help of the Carter Center’s access-to-information and access-to-justice programs. VOA reporter Kim Lewis has more on this story.

March 12, 2015
Peace In Liberia, 10 Years Later: A Conversation at The Carter Center
Published by WABE (NPR affiliate).
WABE senior reporter Jim Burress discusses a recent Conversations at The Carter Center called "Peace in Liberia, 10 Years Later." Having visited Liberia on a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Burress spent three weeks documenting how the West African country is rebuilding more than a decade after the end of its brutal civil war. Burress also happened to be there just as the first Ebola cases were reported, which went on to become arguably the biggest international story of 2014. The Carter Center has worked in Liberia for more than two decades, observing elections and partnering with government and civil society to strengthen democratic institutions, access to information, administration of justice, and mental health services.

July 29, 2014
Liberia: Inequalities Report Released
Published by AllAfrica.com.
The Carter Center's Access to Information project, working with the Ministry of Gender and Development, the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism, and the Women's NGO Secretariat (WONGOSOL) , has released recommendations for addressing the inequities that Liberian women face in the exercise of the right of information.

July 11, 2014
Liberian Journalist Heads Carter Center Here
Published by AllAfrica.com.
The Carter Center has named photo-journalist Pewee Flomoku as the first Liberian chief of party for its office. A veteran Liberian journalist, Flomoku will lead both general office operations and the Carter Center's Access to Justice Project.

July 8, 2014
Liberia: Coming Out Soon – Report on Women's Rights to Info
Published by AllAfrica.com.
It has been announced that the Ministry of Gender and Development, the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism and the Women's NGO Secretariat (WONGOSOL), working with the Access to Information Project of The Carter Center, will release the study "Women and the Right of Access to Information in Liberia."

May 5, 2014
Why Liberia?
Published by WABE.org (NPR-Atlanta).
As part of a reporting trip paid for through a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, WABE's Jim Burress spent twelve days in the West African country looking at how it's rebuilding nearly a decade after its civil war ended, as well as how Atlanta is connected to those efforts.

April 30, 2014
Liberia: Media Urged to Utilize FOI
Published by AllAfrica.com.
Media managers in Liberia have been encouraged to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Law to enhance their reportage by making public officials and institutions to account for their services to the public.

March 17, 2014
Liberia: Forum on Women Access to Information
Published by AllAfrica.com.
Participants at a one-day forum to validate a research on women's access to information (ATI) say the slow pace at which women obtain information for growth and development is mainly due to traditional and cultural practices, as well as domestic workload.

Jan. 27, 2014
Liberia: Carter Center Gets Support for 'Access to Justice Program'
Published by AllAfrica.com
The Carter Center has entered a partnership with the Government of Sweden through a US$ 7.5 million grant aimed at improving its access to justice program in Liberia for the next three years.

Aug. 23, 2012
Liberia: Out-of-Court Justice
Published by IRIN.
"We don't get much sleep now because there are people calling night and day," says Jesco Davis, who represents the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), a local NGO partnering with the US-based Carter Center and helps Liberia's overwhelmed judiciary by resolving cases out of court and teaching citizens about their basic rights.

March 5, 2012
Advancing The Rights of Access To Information (editorial)
Last week, the Carter Center and the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism (MICAT) extended their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to continue ongoing collaboration to promote and strengthen awareness, implementation, and compliance with the 2010 Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

Feb. 28, 2012
GOL Commends USAID, Carter Center
Published by TheInquirer.com (Liberia).
The Government of Liberia has lauded the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) and The Carter Center for the support and work to advance the Freedom of Information as part of the government efforts to open up state bureaucracy to public scrutiny.

Feb. 14, 2012
Carter Center, JPC Expand Legal Support Services
Published Feb. 14, 2012 by The Inquirer (Liberia).
The Carter Center in partnership with the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) with understanding from the Ministry of Justice has expanded its Community Legal Advisor (CLA) Program to provide legal support services in Montserrado County.

Dec. 5, 2011
Liberia: Deputy Micat Boss - FOI At Critical Point
Published Dec. 5, 2011, by AllAfrica.com.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICAT), Norris Tweah, has said the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is at a critical point. According to Minister Tweah, despite the passage into law of the Act by the Legislature, there is still much to be done to ensure the implementation of the legislation.

Sept. 29, 2011
Liberia: Use the FOI Law, Stakeholders Call On Citizens
Published Sept. 29, 2011, by AllAfrica.
Speakers at the celebration of the International Right To Know Day have made a collective call on ordinary Liberians and the country's civil society to make use of the Freedom of Information (FOI) law.

Sept. 16, 2011
"Secrecy Bill" Step Backwards for Africa
Published Sept. 16, 2011, by IPSNews.net.
Critics call it "the Secrecy Bill". And it comes at a time when several African countries are adopting promising new legislation on access to information. But campaigners say South Africa's draft Protection of Information Bill represents a step backwards.

Feb. 28, 2011
Pewee Flomoku saw Liberia's Child Soldiers Through a Camera Lens. Now He Promotes Peace
Published Feb. 28, 2011, by The Christian Science Monitor.
Photojournalist Pewee Flomoku captured images of child soldiers and the other horrors of war in Liberia. Now he's working on free and fair elections.

Jan. 26, 2011
Carter Center, JPC Open 3,000 Legal Cases
Published Jan. 26, 2011, by the allafrica.com.
As Liberia's legal system slowly recovers from the war and seeks to gain the trust of its citizens, the Carter Center has disclosed plans to expand its Community Legal Advisor (CLA) program.

Jan. 20, 2011
Liberia: Carter Center Expands Community Legal Advisor Program
Published Jan. 20, 2011, by allAfrica.com.
The Carter Center, in collaboration with the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), is expanding its Community Legal Advisor (CLA) program to provide legal support services in nine rural counties.

Aug. 4, 2010
Public Radio International Highlights Judicial System in Liberia
Public Radio International's "The World" examines Liberia's struggle with land disputes, as citizens return home after the war to find others living on land they claim as their own, in a story aired Aug. 3.

June 2, 2010
Carter Center Helping Traditional Leaders Resolve Land Disputes
Published June 2, 2010 by Voice of America.
In Liberia, the Carter Center is helping traditional leaders better manage local disputes, including rival land claims.

Feb. 10, 2010
Mail & Guardian Information Access Affects Everyone
A worldwide movement to promote people's rights of access to information came to Africa this week. A centre set up by former United States president Jimmy Carter convened a big-guns conference in Ghana to advance the cause across the continent.

Feb. 10, 2010
PBS Using Text Messages to Combat Identity Theft in South Africa
Information access is on the move in Africa. Let me paint you a picture. The person is fictitious, but the process isn't.

Feb. 2, 2010
Ghana Web Fight Against Corruption Should Start at the Top
President John Evans Atta Mills at the week-end said that any fight against corruption should start at the leadership level, indicating that the menace often led to unpleasant results. He said it must be demonstrated that corruption should not be encouraged and the passage of anti-corruption legislation was to strengthen the ability to monitor and check the vice in society.

Aug. 31, 2009
Liberian Diaspora in Atlanta Debates Truth Commission's Final Report
Published Aug. 31, 2009, by Voice of America.
Exactly two months after the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report it seems Liberians at home and in the Diaspora are still confused about many aspects of the report.

July 1, 1997
From Civil War to Civil Society: The Transition from War to Peace in Guatemala and Liberia (PDF)
Report on a workshop co-convened by the World Bank and The Carter Center in February 1997. The meeting, which focused on the experiences of Guatemala and Liberia, was part of the World Bank's global workshop series on transitions from war to peace.