[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ALFRED BROWNELL

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to speak briefly about the 
courageous environmental activism of Alfred Brownell, a native of 
Liberia now living in exile in Boston.
  Mr. Brownell is an environmental and human rights lawyer and the 
executive director of Green Advocates, a Liberian organization that he 
founded to promote environmental justice for indigenous communities. 
Like so many environmental activists around the world, he has been 
repeatedly harassed and threatened. He was forced to flee his country 
with his family due to fear of reprisal for his outspoken and tireless 
work to protect the traditional land rights of his countrymen and 
against the sale, without their consent, of vast areas of forest to 
Golden Veroleum Liberia, a Southeast Asian-based company that produces 
palm oil. Now a visiting scholar and teacher at Northeastern 
University, Mr. Brownell continues to conduct research and classes on 
the issues that have come to define his life.
  Mr. Brownell was recently recognized by the international community 
for his perseverance in protecting Liberia's forests on which thousands 
of Liberian families and many endangered species of wildlife depend. He 
was honored in San Francisco and Washington as one of six recipients of 
the prestigious 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize. It is important that 
we not only pay tribute to Mr. Brownell for his extraordinary 
contribution to his people and his country but that we be aware that 
despite this international recognition, he continues to fear returning 
to his native country.
  I have long supported U.S. assistance to help Liberia overcome years 
of a brutal armed conflict, and I will continue to do so. But I regret 
that the Liberian Government has sided with the palm oil company and 
against their own local farmers. Unable to intimidate Mr. Brownell, 
government officials tried to silence him by offering him government 
jobs in return for his cooperation. When that failed, they put his 
house and his family under police surveillance, publicly accused him of 
sedition and economic sabotage, accused his organization and other 
environmental rights organizations of undermining Liberia's 
sovereignty, and lied about him to incite an assassination attempt. 
Since December 2016, he has been living in exile, with no indication 
from Liberian officials that their hostility toward him and his cause 
has diminished.
  Government intimidation of civil society activists and scholars is 
antithetical to open and accountable democratic societies. It is what 
we have come to expect of shortsighted or, even worse, corrupt 
officials and the outsized influence of corporate interests.
  If the Liberian Government is serious about attracting foreign 
investment for job creation and sustainable economic development--goals 
we all support--it should recognize that Mr. Brownell is a patriot of 
whom all Liberians can be proud. Liberian officials should encourage 
him and his family to return to Liberia, and point to him as an example 
of how one courageous and determined individual can make a positive 
difference for the country.
  Rather than benefiting a foreign corporation producing a monocrop for 
export, the Liberian Government should be protecting its biologically 
diverse forests and wildlife, not destroying them and polluting the 
rivers on which local inhabitants depend and displacing people who have 
lived there for generations.
  Alfred Brownell should be a source of pride and an inspiration for 
all Liberians. I hope the international recognition he has received 
will convince the Liberian Government that it is people like him who 
deserve our admiration and our thanks.

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