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Liberian President Calls Employment Key to Stability
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1282310:3919ACA Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf calls on international community to help eradicate
unemployment in Liberia, which has reached 'unbearable' 85 percent
Liberia's President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has appealed for
international support in her country's efforts to build a stable,
democratic society. In a keynote speech to the International Labor
Conference in Geneva, the Liberian president told delegates decent
work was at the heart of development.







Ellen Johnson SirleafLiberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf did not
mince her words or try to hide the desperate straits of her country.
In an impassioned speech, she told the more than four 4,000 delegates
that Liberia faced a critical period. She said the country's long
civil war has decimated its institutions and undermined its
socio-economic fabric. She said Liberia needed all the help it could
get to recover.

She called her country's civil war unprecedented. She said the war
wrecked Liberia's state institutions and criminalized her peoples'
sense of humanity.

"Our institutions, both public and private have experienced both
physical and moral decay," she said. "Unemployment has risen to an
unbelievable and unbearable 85 percent. The level of unemployment and
the idleness of our youth have a propensity for social disenchantment.
For us, employment is synonymous with peace."

President Sirleaf proudly proclaimed her role as a woman, a mother and
a worker. Sirleaf is the first woman president in Africa. As a woman,
she said she represented the millions of women in Africa whose
strength and determination to influence national decisions was
propelled by blood, sweat and tears.

She said Liberia's journey out of the darkness of civil war could not
end with elections and the inauguration of a new government.

"It must be nurtured continuously by our commitment and national
renewal, an agenda to reconcile, a vision to rebuild and a
determination to study war no more," added Ms. Sirleaf. "Equally
significant will be the international goodwill and partnership that
will sustain stability and the dividends of democracy."

President Sirleaf pledged the rule of law and regard for labor
standards would be central to Liberia's quest for development. She
said her government already had begun a review of labor laws and had
initiated the repeal of those found to be offensive to a democratic
government.

She said she viewed full employment and decent work to be key to her
government's national development strategies. She called on the
international community and the International Labor Organization to
immediately help Liberia develop a decent work program.

She said there is no cause for pride in Liberia's recent past. But,
she added, there is cause for hope because of the country's new
political and national commitment to create a better society.