Accountability Counsel’s Partners Under Attack in Liberia: Stand in Solidarity

Accountability Counsel’s long-standing partners, Green Advocates, are under attack in Liberia. We are calling for international solidarity to protect and defend the rights of our colleagues and to ensure their safety.

We have worked closely with the organization’s leader, Alfred Brownell, and a number of Green Advocates’ staff over the years in our joint effort to support communities harmed by OPIC’s failed Buchanan Renewables investment that caused human rights and environmental abuses.

Because of their efforts to hold corporations, institutions, and governments accountable, Mr. Brownell, his family, and his colleagues have been the consistent target of trumped up charges, attacks, and now face full state-sanctioned persecution.

We call on the private and public investors, philanthropists and foundations, and all members of the public who care about justice to speak up. Investment in Liberia now signals complicity in a deliberate strategy to silence the voices of brave Liberians who challenge abuse.

Please join Accountability Counsel in signing this petition to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia, who has the power to restore the rule of law and protect human rights and environmental defenders.

We at Accountability Counsel note that the persecution of Green Advocates is part of a larger trend toward closing space for civil society around the world. Given the role that so many outside of Liberia play in the forces that require communities to stand up against abuse (investment in land grabs, forced displacement, contamination of local water), it is now our responsibility to speak up. Please join us to amplify the voices of Mr. Brownell, his Green Advocates colleagues, and all human rights and environmental defenders facing persecution in Liberia.