Liberia: LNBA Launches Free Legal Aid Services Project
Monrovia -A one-year project to sensitize, encourage and promote legal protection for the vulnerable and and indigent citizens through the provision of pro-bono legal aid services was launched on Friday, September 27, by the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA) with funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
By Victoria G Wesseh
The project seeks to provide legal aid services for the most egregious cases to reduce docket overcrowding and pre-trial detention in Montserrado County.
It will educate citizens on how to access the LNBA Pro Bono Legal Aid Services and encourage indigents to take advantage of the opportunity to access justice, according to organizers.
Speaking at the launch, LNBA’s President Sylvester Rennie, disclosed that the Bar signed a grant agreement with the UNDP in the amount of US$USD 120,159.77.
“The overall purpose of this grant is to reduce the number of pretrial detainees in Montserrado County and improve access to justice for all Liberians,” Cllr. Rennie indicated.
Cllr. Rennie put the estimated figure of pretrial detainees at 71.2% of the overall prison population.
“It is worth noting that systemic weaknesses in the justice system clearly undermine access to justice and due process,” emphasized Rennie.
Rennie said, it is a reality that crimes are committed on a daily basis, which are violations of the law.
“But when these offenders are arrested and taken to the law, in most instances, they are unable to meet the needed provisions to secure their release and are therefore incarcerated,” Rennie noted. “Even those who commit crimes that are non-bailable, are also incarcerated.”
He emphasized that most of these detainees at various prison facilities in Liberia are pre-trial detainees, which constitute 71% of the overall number of detainees in the Country.
As a means of having some of our prisons decongested, the LNBA and the UNDP with funding from the International Narcotics & Law Enforcement (INL) signed a grant agreement for the decongestion of pretrial detainees at the Monrovia Central prison, according to Cllr. Rennie.
He expressed gratitude to the UNDP for the collaboration.
The LNBA observed in Liberia, pre-trial detention is unfairly managed and notoriously lengthy, with an estimated 71.2% of detainees subjected to extended or prolonged pre-trial detention, and even when cases go to trial, only a small number of cases are tried each year, thus undermining equitable access to justice.
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