A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

concluSion
The Liberia TRC Diaspora Project was a historic first attempt to systematically engage a diaspora
population in all aspects of a post-conflict truth seeking process. Diaspora Liberians played a role in
the process at every stage, from membership on an advisory committee, to assisting with outreach,
to giving statements, to testifying at public hearings held in the United States. The Liberia TRC
Diaspora Project used hundreds of volunteers to take statements and provide other support for its
work. Ultimately, more than 600 individual volunteers were trained as statement takers and many
more were involved in outreach and support for the U.S. public hearings. The project documented the
stories of hundreds of refugees, asylees, and other diaspora Liberians on three continents.
The voices of diaspora communities present an important piece of the post-conflict puzzle in Liberia.
For example, many individuals fled Liberia before the conflict and were living in the diaspora.
These people held key information about the early years of the TRC mandate, such as the Tolbert
administration and 1980 coup d’etat, that could help fill information gaps for the TRC. The experiences
of Liberian refugees in Ghana highlight the regional implications of post-conflict transitional justice.
Systematic documentation of the experiences of refugees highlighted the breakdowns in the system
of international protection for refugees fleeing conflict. In Liberia and elsewhere, refugees must be
considered part of the post-conflict transitional justice equation. Documenting their experiences
provides important information about human rights violations that take place during flight and in
refuge, and offer direction as to what actions must occur in order to secure a stable future in Liberia
and the West African sub-region.
As this report demonstrates, many diaspora Liberians outside of the sub-region see themselves as
transnationals, living in “a house with two rooms.” Liberians in the United States and the U.K. have
deep connections to both their country of origin and their country of residence. They struggle with
the legacy of conflict on an individual, family, and community level. While dealing with the ongoing
impact of physical and psychological trauma, they struggle to keep families together and endure
the bureaucracy of immigration systems. Liberian youth, many of whom have grown up outside of
Liberia, face a set of unique challenges in trying to define their identity and navigate between cultures.
All the while, at the community level, the Liberian civil crisis drags on as community politics, social
gatherings, and the internet become new fields to play out old battles.
Powerful threads run from Liberia, through the refugee settlements in the sub-region, out into the
United States and Europe, and back again to Liberia. For the most part, statement givers expressed
their strong desire to return to Liberia and, at a minimum, to assist the nation’s development from
afar. Many described the actions they are taking to do so. The desire to see Liberia thrive again
is reflected in diaspora recommendations focusing on development, education, justice, and a new
Liberia that provides equal opportunity to all. Equally clear from statements, however, is the view that
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