Normative and Institutional Frameworks for Defending Human Rights Defenders in Liberia

This paper postulated that human rights defenders (HRDs) are diverse foot soldiers from all works of life who operate as individuals or group of individuals in rural communities or cites and who devote their professional services, trade, or skills to the protection of human rights. This paper argued that the need to protect HRDs arose out of increasing threats against them and the global normative framework to protect them was fluid until the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders by the United Nations in 1998, followed by regional and national frameworks. These frameworks gave birth to global and regional institutional mechanisms to protect HRDs including the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Human Rights Defenders and the Special Rapporteurs on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. In the case of Liberia, whereas there is no applicable framework that specifically provide for the protection of HRDs, the key institutional mechanism for the protection of HRDs is the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR). Despite the protective shields of both the global, regional, and national frameworks and institutions for the protection of HRDs, the climate for HRDs in Liberia is precarious.