By Jessica Cox
MONROVIA — Liberia will use its historic tenure on the United Nations Security Council to place the country’s women, their peacebuilding legacy and their continuing role in sustaining peace firmly on the global stage, senior government officials announced Thursday.
As Liberia prepares to assume the presidency of the Security Council in December 2026, the Government says women, peace and security will rank among the central issues it will champion during its two-year term.
Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti disclosed the plans during the Ministry of Information’s regular press conference, where she emphasized that Liberia’s Security Council seat belongs to the nation, not any single ministry or individual.
“The seat is not about a person, it is not about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it is about a country,” Nyanti said.
Liberia secured the Council seat for the 2026–2027 term in June 2025, winning 181 of 187 votes cast by the UN General Assembly.
Nyanti outlined five campaign priorities: women, peace and security; youth, peace and security; the nexus between climate, conflict and natural resources; reform of the Security Council, including peacekeeping reform; and strengthening the role of subregional blocs in international decision-making.
Among the most prominent September engagements will be Liberia’s signature side event on Women, Peace and Security, led by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry.
Gender Minister Gbeme Horace Kollie described the event as an opportunity for Liberia to transform its history of women-led peacebuilding into a global lesson. The event will convene under the theme “From Pioneer to Global Leader,” reflecting Liberia’s evolution from a country emerging from civil war to a nation now positioned to share its peacebuilding experience at the highest level of international diplomacy.
“We don’t go there as people who want to learn,” Kollie declared. “We go there with the knowledge, with the skills to serve the world.”
She argued that Liberia’s women played a decisive role in bringing the country’s devastating civil conflict to an end through grassroots mobilization and sustained advocacy for peace. Their history, she said, is not merely a chapter in the country’s past but evidence of what women can accomplish when they organize, mobilize and exercise leadership during national crises.
Liberia has already attracted international attention for its efforts to incorporate women, peace and security principles into national policy, particularly through the development and domestication of its National Action Plan following UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Kollie recalled how Liberian women organized across communities during the civil war and helped create the momentum that eventually contributed to the conflict’s end. Their contribution, she said, demonstrated the transformative power of women’s leadership and established Liberia as an important case study in women-led peacebuilding.
Women at Home to Participate via Webcast
The planned September event will connect the women who participated in Liberia’s peace movement directly with the international audience.
According to Kollie, organizers will webcast the event to women gathered at the Fish Market in Monrovia, allowing Liberian women at home to participate in proceedings taking place thousands of miles away in New York.
The initiative ensures that the women whose activism helped shape Liberia’s peace story are not merely represented in speeches but witness and participate in the country’s moment on the global stage.
The New York event will bring together senior international officials and ministers, including representatives from Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, alongside the African Union Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security. Liberia’s Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee is also expected to participate, with President Joseph Nyuma Boakai serving as keynote figure.
Kollie said the international interest in Liberia’s experience demonstrates the value of the country’s Security Council tenure. She recalled an exchange with a Swedish official who described Liberia as a “classic example” and asked how Liberian women managed to contribute to ending the conflict.
For Kollie, Liberia’s answer should be straightforward: the country should go to the Security Council prepared to share the experience that others are seeking to understand.
While the women’s peacebuilding legacy takes center stage, the Government is also preparing to focus on the generation expected to sustain Liberia’s peace.
Youth and Sports Minister Atty. Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah announced that her ministry, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will host Liberia’s second major side event during the September engagements.
The event will focus on Youth, Peace and Security under the theme “Rooting and Rising: Liberia’s Vision for Youth, Peace and Security.”
Kruah said Liberia’s peace was first fought for and secured through the collective actions of its women, with men and young people ultimately responding to the call for peace. The responsibility now, she said, is to pass that peace to a new generation.
“Our focus is how do we sustain that peace that the women of Liberia were able to cause, and how do we build on it to ensure that our country becomes more developed,” Kruah said.
The minister said Liberia’s youth agenda must move beyond conferences and workshops toward creating practical opportunities that enable young people to become economically independent, competitive and active contributors to national development.
The planned event will bring together an estimated 75 to 100 participants, including government representatives, UN agencies, international foundations, civil society organizations and members of the Liberian diaspora. The forum will also provide an opportunity to launch the Ministry of Youth and Sports’ Pathway Reform, intended to strengthen opportunities and empowerment for young Liberians.
The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs has confirmed participation, while discussions continue with UNFPA and other international partners.
A youth delegation from Liberia will include young people drawn from statutory youth organizations, persons with disabilities, young people at risk, youth involved in peace and security initiatives, and members of the creative economy. Young Liberians in the diaspora are also expected to participate as part of efforts to build stronger links between the country’s young people at home and abroad.
A National Platform, Not Individual Achievement
The three-pronged approach—women, youth and broader peacebuilding—reflects Liberia’s attempt to use the Security Council seat beyond traditional diplomacy.
Foreign Minister Nyanti said Liberia intends to use its position to demonstrate that its experience can contribute to international conversations on peace, conflict prevention and sustainable development.
She noted Liberia’s role is particularly significant because it is representing Africa on the Council while also bringing the concerns of its own region and subregional blocs to international deliberations. The Mano River Union, she noted, is one example of why Liberia believes certain security challenges should be considered collectively rather than solely from individual country perspectives.
The Government’s September events are therefore designed to give Liberia’s sector ministries a platform to showcase national programs, build partnerships and promote the country’s priorities during its Security Council tenure.
For Liberian women, however, the opportunity carries an especially powerful historical message. The women who once marched, organized and demanded an end to war are now being positioned as part of Liberia’s answer to a much larger global question: what can women do to build and sustain peace?
More than two decades after Liberian women helped push their country toward peace, their story is now heading to the chamber where some of the world’s most consequential questions of war and peace are debated.
And this time, Liberia says, its women are not going to New York simply to tell the world what happened. They are going to show the world what they learned.
