This article argues that Liberia owes a duty under both international humanitarian and human rights law to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes, including torture, rape and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians, committed in that country by the warring parties in the course of 14 years of brutal conflict. It then evaluates the options for prosecution, and finally suggests that because the Special Court for Sierra Leone has already started the accountability process for Liberia with the indictment of Charles Taylor in 2003, and given the close links between the Liberian and Sierra Leonean conflicts, the Special Court would be a more appropriate forum for international prosecutions of those who perpetrated gross humanitarian and human rights law violations in Liberia.

First official results have been declared in Liberia after the historic elections following the 14-year civil war which ended in 2003. With votes counted from a fraction of the 3,000 polling stations, one of the favourites, ex-footballer George Weah, is ahead in the presidential race. He has 27.5% of the 34,901 votes counted. Another fancied contender, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has 16.7%.

Liberia's first polls after 14 years of bloody civil war might see a woman elected president, in what would be a first not only for Liberia but also for Africa. And with more women than men registered to vote, they should have the final say at the ballot box October 12. It is no surprise, then, that sisters in this impoverished West African nation are in jubilant mood. "For the first time in history, women are at the forefront of the elections," said Leymah Gbowee, head of the Women In Peacebuilding Network. "Towards the end of hostilities, Liberian women protested for peace and that's when the foundation was laid for women to play a more active role." The woman leading the charge is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, affectionately dubbed "the Iron Lady" after Britain's groundbreaking prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist with a resume boasting stints at the UN, World Bank and Citibank, wants to break a male stranglehold on power that has lasted almost 160 years.

Liberia is far from having the diamond controls required to prevent diamonds from fuelling conflict and instability, says a Global Witness paper, which demonstrates how insufficient reform of Liberia's diamond and timber industries and failure to adequately control areas rich in natural resources have resulted in their continued exploitation and threat to regional peace and security. "Despite the terms of his exile arrangements with Nigeria that forbade Charles Taylor from engaging in active communication with anyone engaged in political, illegal or governmental activities in Liberia, he continues to do so," said Global Witness.

While Tuesday's election is a hopeful development for the 1.3 million Liberians expected to vote, reintegration remains a considerable challenge. Liberia's economy collapsed during the years of civil war, and refugees and displaced people alike face a dire situation upon return. Despite the work of the international community and of the people of Liberia to rebuild the war-torn country, it will probably take years to restore Liberia's economy. Nearly 85 per cent of Monrovians are jobless. Usually, it is women who engage in small trading activities, walking the streets of Monrovia with plates on their heads selling a few items to feed their families.

Liberians go to the polls next week for their country's first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in the West African state in 2003. An estimated 1.3 million registered voters (out of a population of 3.5 million) will queue on Oct. 11 to choose a president from 22 candidates, including soccer great George Weah. More than 500 candidates are vying for 64 parliamentary seats, and about 200 for 30 senate seats.

If a return to armed conflict in Liberia is to be avoided, the new government to be elected on October 11 must ensure that those responsible for past atrocities are brought to justice and that human rights abusers are kept out of the police, army and civil service, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released this week. On October 11, Liberia will hold its first national elections since the signing of a peace agreement in 2003. At stake in the polls are the presidency, the 30-seat Senate and the 64-seat House of Representatives. While preparations, registration and campaigning in the October elections have been free of major irregularities, leaders in the country's incoming government will need to pay more attention to the critical issues of justice and human rights than they have on the campaign trail, Human Rights Watch said.

The Liberia Democratic Institute in collaboration with other community-based grassroots groups on Saturday, September 10, 2005, on World White Band Day II joined the global community in the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) to pressurize the world richest countries to make their promises authentic and eradicate poverty. The march climaxed the series of activities that started on Tuesday, September 8, 2005. The White Band Day observation, the first of its kind in Liberia was launched not only to call the world riches nations attention to the acute poverty and hardship experienced by poor countries around the world but also to set the stage for positive mass citizen’s movement informed by calls for effective good governance practices in Liberia.

A local consortium of pro-democracy and human rights organizations, under the aegis of Coalition Against Corruption (CAC), has challenged the Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia, Charles G. Bryant, to face Liberia’s corruption pandemic squarely by inaugurating domestic mechanisms. In a letter to Chairman Bryant, CAC said: “We want to encourage you to go beyond this courageous act, by ensuring that the needed domestic anti-corruption mechanisms are put into place: a National Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office, a Law on Access to Public Information and a Special Anti-corruption Law, making corrupt practices in the public and private sectors felonious.”

Following two separate violent demonstrations, youths of the county have resolved to pursue peaceful co-existence by committing themselves to ensuring that the county remains peaceful. According to a release, the Bong County Youths made the promise at the end of a six- month Community Training Program in Gbarnga. The training program was implemented by the Development Education Network of Liberia, DEN-L, and funded by United States Aid for International Development (USAID) and the Liberia Transition Initiative, (LTI).

Liberia stands to lose millions of dollars of aid and billions of dollars of debt relief if it does not sign up to a plan to wipe out rampant corruption in the war-scarred West African nation, donors warned on Thursday. Authorities have been haggling with the international community for months over the so-called Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP), designed to ensure funds do not end up in the pockets of politicians but go towards approving the lot of Liberia's three million population who suffered 14 years of civil war.

Liberia's presidential and legislative elections in October represent welcome progress but it would court disaster to consider them the end of the country's transformation, says the International Crisis Group (ICG). "The process can still easily fail if Liberians refuse to implement an intrusive economic governance mechanism or international partners pull out early. The UN, U.S., EU and World Bank need to stay the course."

When Precious was just 12, she sold her body for the first time to a man nearly four times her age. Now 18, the Liberian schoolgirl sleeps with five to six men on an average day to pay her school fees of 1,500 Liberian dollars (£16) a year and to buy food. Precious receives the equivalent of between 27p and 54p from each client.

Conservationists have moved hundreds of squatters out of Liberia's largest national park, putting an end to their slaughter of wildlife and illegal gold mining. Alexander Pearl of Conservation International said about 500 people had been transported out of Sapo National Park in south-eastern Liberia during a five-day programme carried out in conjunction with UN peacekeepers and the government.

Candidates vying to be Liberia's next head of state are divided about whether to ask for former president Charles Taylor to be transferred from exile in Nigeria to stand trial for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. Taylor has been served 17 indictments for crimes against humanity for his involvement and support to the Revolutionary United Front rebel faction in Sierra Leone, known for hacking off hands, feet, lips and ears of civilians during the 1991-2002 civil war.

The head of Liberia's Maritime Bureau was charged on Wednesday with siphoning off US $3.5 million - the first time a government official has appeared in court to face corruption allegations since the civil war ended two years ago. Western governments have warned that funding for reconstruction will be withheld if politicians continue to squander the cash or pocket resources designed to help the country's estimated three million population.

How do you start life again in your hometown when the house you worked so hard to build over the years and all your hard-earned belongings have been destroyed? This is a dilemma facing Liberian refugees as they head back home to war-torn areas like Lofa county. Lofa, one of the 15 counties in Liberia, shares borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone and was the most devastated county during Liberia's 14-year conflict.

Liberia's transitional government said on Friday it had drafted a counter strategy for improving financial transparency and attracting economic aid that rejects donor proposals for placing foreign experts in key departments as watchdogs against corruption and embezzlement. The document would be reviewed by foreign ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and donor representatives at a meeting in the Niger capital Niamey on Tuesday with the aim of eventually submitting it to the UN Security Council, government spokesman William Allen told IRIN. The donor proposals, a copy of which IRIN obtained last month, sparked an outcry from Liberian politicians, who complained that they would severely undercut the country's sovereignty.

African and international civil society groups have launched a campaign urging the African Union (AU) Assembly to demonstrate its human rights commitment when it meets in Libya by ensuring that Charles Taylor faces justice for the crimes that he committed against African men, women and children. “It is now time for the African Union to join ranks with other key nations and international bodies in calling for Charles Taylor to face trial for these serious crimes,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, Africa Program Director at Amnesty International.

When doctors testing blood in this remote town in north-eastern Liberia discover that a donor is HIV-positive, they keep the information to themselves. There is nothing else they can do. "Probably about two out of ten donors for blood transfusions are HIV positive and it’s very frustrating not to be able to tell people," said Karolina Claesson, the head nurse from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Belgium team that runs Zwedru's main hospital.