About
Green Advocates International
Nete Sie Brownell Public Interest Law Building, 23rd McDonald streets, P.O. Box 5643, corner of McDonald and Benson streets, Monrovia - Liberia
(+231) 777 07 72 06 / (+231) 770 16 29 33
francis.colee@greenadvocates.org
About
Green Advocates International is a Liberian-based non-profit, public interest law, environmental and human rights organization working to advance a wide range of rights-based issues through legal aid, consultation and support for the victims of environmental and human rights violations; the development of context-specific programs to empower poor rural, urban slum and squatter communities to participate in decision-making processes in the management of Liberia’s natural resources and its economy and the public’s right to know; the drafting and enactment of appropriate policies and legislations on good governance; the promotion of transparency and accountability in governmental activities and assistance in the strengthening and enforcement of existing environmental and human rights standards.
Green Advocates International was formed in 1997 by Alfred Lahai Brownell then a law student attending the Louis Arthur Grimes School, in Monrovia, Liberia. Brownell encouraged other progressive law students to join his effort and Green Advocates was formally incorporated and accredited by the Government of Liberia in 2000.
Activities
In terms of thematic programs, Green Advocates has, in the last decade, extensively worked on several issues, including natural resource governance, land tenure/conflict, access to information, corporate accountability, environmental governance, economic justice, GIS mapping/community participatory mapping, community-company dialogues, climate change and public interest law. The thematic programs have been mainly structured to create a society in which local communities are empowered to exercise their economic, social and cultural rights and are better served by the Government of Liberia as duty-bearer and multinational corporations demonstrate good corporate citizenship.
Green Advocates has facilitated the establishment of several Alliances, Networks, Coalitions and Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues (MSD) across the country and in the sub-region, including the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Liberia Coalition which is credited with the public awareness and lobby that helped Liberia to join and implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD) and the Natural Resource Women Platform (NRWP).The Natural Resource Women Platform serves as the forum for amplifying the voices of historically under-represented women in Liberia. ARD is a network of community based organizations as well as pro-poor enterprising informal sector organizations from across Liberia, working in solidarity actions to address the numerous problems facing local communities in Liberia.
We have the experience in working across diverse communities and the capacity to engage with all decision makers in government and other stakeholders in the private sector on issues of transparency and accountability in Liberia.