Liberia, the first African country to declare itself a republic and one of three African nations to take part in the establishment and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, is on the brink of its own landmark achievement in human rights. Internal peace and security is within sight, an amazing vision after the recent Ebola epidemic devastated a country still scarred by decades of civil war. But to get there, Liberia’s national legislature must overcome the bane of African politics everywhere — conflict caused by rapacious and uninhibited economic development and the ensuing human rights violations. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, six years after her election, for guiding the country through the early stages of recovery. The country’s infrastructure had been demolished by two civil wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people between 1989 and 2003.

Source: GNN Liberia August 29, 2016 15:11 UTC