Human rights office to be established

An office responsible for coordinating with all local and international organisations in Liberia to ensure the protection of individuals' rights has been set up by the Liberian Ministry of Justice, Radio Liberia International reported on Thursday.

Justice Minister Eddington Varmah said the creation of the Human Rights Coordinating Office came out of a desire to encourage a working relationship with all partners in the human rights community and make the ministry more accessible to victims of rights abuses, the pro-government radio station said.

"We look forward to seeing the real thing happening here although we have yet to be invited to a formal meeting to design strategies and ways of working together," a spokesman for a Monrovia-based human rights organisation, FOCUS, told IRIN on Monday.

He said the sincerity of the government's stated commitment to upholding human rights was in question as pronouncements were often made but nothing actually happened. He added that the government had "abandoned" the Liberian Commission for Human Rights which, although set up in 1997, still did not have its full complement of state-appointed commissioners.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church recently urged the government to talk less and do more and said it needed to address the issue of a national culture of silence born out of fear if human rights were to be improved.

Liberia's security forces have often been accused of committing human rights violations and perpetuating a culture of impunity.