Volume 5. Issue 1 and 2, Fall 2011-Spring 2012

Liberia's Reconciliation

The Current State of Affairs
Laura Castelli

Reconciliation, as a theoretical concept, is indicative of human values often founded on religious experiences of forgiveness.

Index of Thematic Hearings

Compiled by Mairead Reid

Bibliography

Abaka, Charlotte. UNHCR: Situation of Human Rights in Liberia. Report of the independent expert on technical cooperation and advisory services in Liberia, 2006, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/.

And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation

What can you do for a child whose youth has been destroyed by war?  This stark question is a very real and critical daily challenge for those who have lived through conflict.

Reconciliation and the Web

Michael Best

Today the World Wide Web has become a singular method for information dissemination and interaction.

Post-Conflict Memorialization in Liberia

Progress and Challenges
Aaron Weah

After a turbulent three years of national inquiry into Liberia’s violent past, the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) submitted a final report to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the legislature on June 30, 2009. The report made far reaching recommendations, many of which are considered controversial. Senior government officials (past and present) are recommended for criminal accountability through an extraordinary tribunal, or may face domestic prosecution and could barred from holding public office for thirty years. But controversy arising from these now problematic recommendations has overshadowed other critical aspects of the report. Post-conflict memorialization, a component of many transitional justice processes, is one element of the recommendations that Liberians tend to agree with but which has received relatively little attention. Liberians want to remember the unspeakable horrors of the conflict so they may never again occur. In spite of the collective urge to remember the past and the commonalities in what is remembered, memorialization is not a simple process. Liberia’s post-war “memoryscape” evokes pain, misery, identity, and deep ethnic cleavages. Based on four years of research and direct programmatic engagement on the inventory of memories  involving victims’ communities and interactions with victims’ groups in Liberia, this article seeks to unpack the memoryscape, highlight the issues, explain progress—both at national and community levels—and discuss post-conflict memorialization as a crucial dimension to Liberia’s post-war reconciliation.

 

Pursuing Reconciliation after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Lessons from Sierra Leone
Lyn S. Graybill

In December 2009, the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) submitted its final report to the government and people of Liberia.

Trauma, Healing, and Reconciliation in Liberia

A Short Film
Christopher Morris and
Mark Wagner

Along with their children, the women of Liberia have borne the brunt of fourteen years of war, enduring trauma beyond imagination.

The Regional Implications of Identity-Based Conflict in Liberia

Rev. William R. Tolbert III

Following several decades of violent and devastating conflict, the context of the Mano River Union (MRU) sub-region can today be described as relatively stable as a consequence of

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Journal of Religion, Conflict, and Peace. Copyright © 2013.
Published by Plowshares: a Peace Studies Collaborative of Earlham and Goshen Colleges and Manchester University. Supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.
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