Samuel Kofi Woods (born May 1,1964) is a Liberian human rights activist, journalist, politician and academic. In 1994, he founded the Forefront Organization, which documented human rights abuses during the Second Liberian Civil War.

Biography

Woods was born in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...

on May 1, 1964. He was one of twenty children. Woods has worked tirelessly in the field of human rights and has been vigilant in exposing

child labor Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

practices and injustice throughout Liberia. Active even while a student, he was first arrested in 1981. During the Liberian civil war in 1989 Woods escaped to Ghana, but returned to Liberia in 1991 and founded a human rights organization, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission. He operated a radio program aimed at exposing improper arrests, unlawful executions and informing citizens of their civil rights. In 1994 Woods created the Forefront Organization in order to shed light on human rights abuses during the Second Liberian Civil War. In 2006, Woods became the Minister of Labor under President

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa. Sirleaf was born in Monro ...

, only to become Minister of Public Works in 2009 following a cabinet shake-up.

Awards

He won the

Reebok Human Rights Award The Reebok Human Rights Award honoured activists under the age of thirty who fought for human rights through non-violent means. Each year, the award was given to four or five individuals. Each received a grant of US $50,000 that was to be used to ...

in 1994 and received the Pope's human rights medal. Woods graduated with a Master of Arts in Development Studies, and a specialization International Law and Organization for Development at the

International Institute of Social Studies The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...

under

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humani ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

References

External links

Interview with Woods at speaktruth.org

Woods profile at globalrights.org

Short biography at oxfordjournals.org

Oslo Freedom Forum
1964 births Living people Liberian activists Liberian journalists Liberian academics Columbia University faculty Government ministers of Liberia Politicians from Monrovia 21st-century Liberian politicians {{Africa-journalist-stub