Translating Statutory Justice into Legal Empowerment

Abstract

The 2006 ICG report changed the political situation for justice practitioners involved in designing Liberia’s justice reform strategy. The report found that customary justice practices and conflict resolution mechanisms were effective and enjoyed widespread legitimacy while the statutory system did not. The report therefore concluded that customary justice practices must form an integral part of Liberia’s justice strategy. Following its publication, the Liberian Minister of Justice, Frances Johnson Morris, reached out to TCC and asked them to participate in developing the Access to Justice Initiative (A2J). The A2J Initiative called for a spectrum of peacebuilding interventions designed to reach out to rural communities where customary practices predominate, to work with chiefs in order to enhance their conflict resolution capacities and to gradually bridge the gap between customary and statutory systems. This A2J Initiative was also a part of the broader Security Sector Reform strategy designed to integrate the regional justice and security hubs with surrounding communities through networks of CSOs. This strategy required TCC to cultivate working relationships with chiefs who administered justice in their communities