Joint Resolution #JR-001/2024, passed by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Liberia on April 8, 2024, and approved by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. on April 25, 2024, is the foundational legislative instrument that authorized and directed the Executive Branch to establish the mechanisms for both an Extraordinary Criminal Court and a Domestic Corruption Court for war and economic crimes respectively, and was published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 1, 2024. Rooted in the various phases of the Liberian civil wars from 1989 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, displacement of nearly half the population, and horrific abuses including summary executions, massacres, mutilation, torture, rape, other forms of sexual violence, and the forced conscription and use of child combatants, the Resolution draws its constitutional authority from multiple provisions of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia, including Article 34(j) which vests in the Legislature the power to establish specialized courts, Article 34(b) which addresses the security of the state, Article 34(l) which empowers the Legislature to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying its powers into execution, Article 57 which authorizes the signing of international treaties and conventions, and Chapter 1 Article 1 which vests power in the Liberian people to alter and reform their government when their safety and happiness so require. The Resolution also draws legal grounding from Liberia's ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and all other United Nations human rights conventions, treaties, protocols, and agreements, all of which form part of Liberian domestic law under Article 34(f), as well as from Article XIII of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on August 18, 2003, which provided for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address impunity and provide healing and reconciliation, and from the TRC Act of 2005 which gave the TRC a mandate to investigate gross human rights violations, humanitarian law violations, sexual violations, and economic crimes occurring between January 1979 and October 2003. The Resolution acknowledges that the TRC submitted its final report to the Legislature on December 19, 2009, recommending the establishment of an Extraordinary Criminal Court for Liberia with authority to prosecute individuals accused of gross human rights violations, serious humanitarian law violations, and certain domestic crimes, and that Section 48 of the TRC Act required the Head of State to report to the Legislature quarterly on the implementation of the Commission's recommendations, a requirement that successive governments had consistently failed to fulfill, a failure further highlighted by the UN Human Rights Commission's July 2018 expression of concern that none of the alleged perpetrators of gross human rights violations identified in the TRC report had been brought to justice, with Liberia urged to establish an accountability process and report back by 2020, a deadline that also went unmet. In its operative resolutions, the Legislature declared that there should be no impunity for those bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international humanitarian law committed during the civil crisis; called for the full implementation of TRC recommendations including the timely establishment of a UN-backed Special War Crimes Court for Liberia (SWACCOL) to prosecute the most responsible for crimes committed between 1979 and 2003; directed the Executive to develop a legal framework and submit it to the Legislature for enactment of an Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) under domestic jurisprudence for fast-track trials of those indicted for corruption and economic crimes committed from 1979 to the present; directed the President to write to the UN, EU, and US Government expressing the intention to establish the Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal and to request financial and technical assistance while developing a resource mobilization plan; required the President to report progress to the Legislature on the establishment of both courts and outcomes of international engagements; directed the President to issue an Executive Order establishing the Office of War Crimes within the Ministry of Justice and to appoint a Special Envoy or Officer-in-Charge certified by the International Criminal Court, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, or any other relevant international tribunal, to coordinate all activities toward the court's establishment; and as part of jump-starting national reconciliation and healing, directed the President to offer a formal state apology to victims, work with international partners to set up a Reparation Trust Fund for communities worst affected by the conflict, continue the National Palava Hut Program and other reconciliation initiatives, and construct a national monument to commemorate the victims of the atrocities as a reminder against future armed conflicts, with the entire Resolution signed by members of both the Senate and House of Representatives from all counties of Liberia and attested to by the President of the Senate and Vice President of the Republic, the Secretary of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives.