Liberian Citizens’ Initiative for Out of the Country Voting

Petition to the Government of Liberia

CC: United Nations, IOM, EU, ECOWAS, AU and Various International Personalities

We the Citizens of the Republic of Liberia, having been uprooted from our motherland (Liberia), as a result of wars, insecurity, intractable conflicts, Human Rights abuses, economic deprivation and all the dehumanizing vices that led to our displacement and refuge-taking in other geopolitical settings of the world; Whereas, having found ourselves completely excluded from political participation in the affairs of Liberia regarding our suffrage - the right to vote in the national elections of Liberia; And in recognition of the fact, that Liberia ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on September 22, 2004, and in respect for the binding nature of international conventions vis-à-vis domestic laws under Pacta Sunt Servanda; Cognizant of the fact that article 25 of the ICCPR obliges all governments ratifying this treaty to ensure the political participation of its citizens including the traveling community; And realizing the fact that other countries in and out of the region, have accorded their citizens the right to vote while out of their respective Countries; Whereas, Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a fundamental principle of the United Nations, calls for the Right to participate in Government and in Free and Fair Elections; We, the Citizens of Liberia the world over, do hereby petition the Government of Liberia to ensure that we participate in the forth- coming 2011 elections while out of Liberia.

Prepared on this 12 Day of December, 2010 by the Liberian Citizens’ Initiative (LCI) and approved by Jeffrey C. Wordorvlengar Harmon/LCI, jojeff2@yahoo.com, Telephone: (267) 882-3073.

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