On the 77th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 10, 2025
Today, the world marks 77 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted on December 10, 1948, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. This document remains one of humanity’s greatest moral achievements, setting a common standard for dignity, freedom, equality, and justice for all persons everywhere.
Liberia was proud to stand among the 48 nations that voted in favor of the UDHR. Our support was not accidental. Long before 1948, Liberia had already embraced human rights in principle. The Declaration of Independence of 1847expressed ideas that echo the UDHR almost word for word. Our founders explained why they left the United States in search of liberty and equality:
“We were debarred by law from all the rights and privileges of men…
We were shut out from all civil office…
We were excluded from all participation in government…
We were taxed without our consent…
All hope of a favorable change was extinguished…
And we looked with anxiety abroad for some asylum from the deep degradation.”
Liberia was therefore created as a refuge from oppression, a nation meant to ensure that all human beings could enjoy the rights given by God and recognized by reason and justice.
The Declaration of Rights in the 1847 Constitution—especially Article I—proclaimed freedoms that would later appear in the UDHR: equality, liberty, property, freedom of conscience, due process, habeas corpus, trial by jury, freedom of the press, the right to reform or alter government, and protection against arbitrary power.
Yet Liberia’s lived history has been the opposite of this promise.
Instead of becoming a refuge for the oppressed, Liberia has often produced refugees—its own sons and daughters fleeing persecution, armed conflict, fear, intimidation, and bad governance. Contrary to being a haven for those in danger, Liberia has been a refugee-producing country, driven by:
1. military coups
2. violent civil conflicts
3. systemic corruption
4. high levels of intolerance
5. denial of fundamental rights
6. lack of respect for the rule of law
7. abuse of public office
8. the selling of Liberian laborers into forced work on Fernando Po
9. forced labor on plantations owned by government officials and foreign corporations
10. the killing of a president and cabinet ministers for corruption, followed by even more corruption
11. and the painful cycle in which we fight civil war because of bad governance, then repeat the same bad governance once in power.
What kind of country continues to betray the very promise that gave it life?
We were founded as a human rights sanctuary, yet we have too often become a place of fear, repression, and broken trust.This betrayal continues even today. The Weah Government sent back a Sierra Leonean who sought refuge in Liberia and the Boakai Government recently returned a Guinean who clearly feared death in his country. Both actions violated the Refugee Convention and multiple human rights treaties. More recently, the Speaker of the House threatened to arrest journalists despite the Kamara A. Kamara Act of 2018, which protects press freedom.
As someone who speaks not only as an award-winning human rights defender but also as a victim of human rights abuse—I feel these failures personally. I know from lived experience what it means when a government violates human dignity. That is why I must speak.
And as a presidential aspirant who wants to transform Liberia by keeping the promise, I could not allow this Human Rights Day to pass without stating clearly where I stand.
I stand firmly on the side of human rights, truth, justice, and constitutional governance.
I stand for a Liberia that honors the ideals that shaped both the 1847 Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Today, I call on the Government of Liberia to honor all core international human rights instruments, especially the following:
a. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
b. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
c. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
d. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
e. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
f. The Refugee Convention
g. And the Constitution of Liberia, particularly Articles 11 to 22
These instruments are not foreign impositions; they are consistent with Liberia’s founding DNA. They reflect who we were meant to be.
Liberia will never develop if it continues to send refugees back to danger, silence journalists, tolerate corruption, ignore constitutional rights, and betray the promise of 1847. Development cannot grow where human rights are abused. Peace cannot stand where justice is denied. National progress cannot exist without the rule of law.
Let this 77th anniversary be a turning point.
Let us renew the promise made in 1847 and reaffirmed in 1948.
Let us build a nation that truly protects the dignity of every human being.
To all Liberians at home and abroad, and to all foreign residents living among us,
I wish you a meaningful and hopeful Human Rights Day 2025.
Let us stand together for justice, for freedom, and for the Liberia we were meant to be.
