Dialogue on Building Strong Rule of Law Institutions in the Gambia & and Book Launch ‘The Gambia in Transition: Towards a New Constitutional Order’

The Gambia’s return to democracy after twenty-two years of authoritarian rule under former dictator Yahya Jammeh marked a turning point. On 19 January 2017, Adama Barrow was sworn in as President of the Republic of The Gambia. This historic development presented a new blueprint for transitioning from an authoritarian regime to a democratic dispensation. The moment also provides an opportune occasion to take stock of the systematic assaults on the constitutional, legal, and institutional frameworks under the former regime and chart a new way forward.

On October 21, Law Hub Gambia and the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) in collaboration with the American Bar Association (ABA) Rule of Law Initiative with support from USAID is convened a dialogue on “Building Strong Rule of Law Institutions” and Book Launch- “The Gambia in Transition: Towards a New Constitutional Order” (Pretoria University Law Press, 2022), a first-of-its-kind book project that brings together diverse contributions from scholars and practitioners to provide context-specific understandings of the past, ongoing and future efforts of constitution-making, protection of human rights and enhancing accountable governance in the Gambia.

The Keynote Statement was delivered by the Chief Justice of The Gambia, Hon. Hassan B. Jallow, who launched the book.

“We must revive the process, engage all the stakeholders in a national dialogue that can deliver a new constitution acceptable to the nation. It must however be a frank and honest dialogue. A dialogue which will enable us to know the real issues holding back the adoption of a new constitution. We need to know and understand the concerns of the various stakeholders. And then we must be ready to compromise; to accommodate each other. A dialogue involving critical stakeholders such as the National Assembly, the Political Parties, and the government. And supported by independent and impartial, preferably local facilitators. I believe such a process can unlock the unfortunate deadlock we currently face and help us secure a new and progressive constitution. I once again urge all the stakeholders to review the constitution making process and with that spirit, work together to ensure the adoption of a new constitutional framework for our nation”

— Chief Justice of the Gambia, Hassan Bubacar Jallow

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Chief Justice of the Gambia, Hassan B. Jallow- Keynote Statement & Book Launch

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Prof Abdoulaye Saine - Commentary

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Prof Frans Viljoen - Goodwill message

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Dr. Satang Nabaneh, Co-Editor - Overview of the book

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Pre-event: Authors Meet Critics

We also had a Book Talk at my alma mater, the University of The Gambia Faculty of Law, where we held an interactive and dynamic discussion with book chapter authors.

Presentation of Chapters

●      Saikou Jammeh, Malagen: <<A Case for Constitutional Guarantees for Freedom of the Media in The Gambia (Chapter 4)>>

●      Dr. Satang Nabaneh, University of Dayton: <<Women’s Political Participation in The Gambia – One Step Forward or Two Back? (Chapter 6)>>

●      Essa Njie, University of The Gambia: <<Civil Society, Elections, Democratic Restoration and Consolidation in the ‘New Gambia’ (Chapter 8) >>

●      Peter K Mendy, University of The Gambia: <<Political Representation of Ethnic Groups in The Gambia – Lessons from the Electoral System of Mauritius (Chapter 9) >>

●      Ismene Nicole Zarifis, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative: <<The Transitional Justice Imperative in Protecting Human rights in the New Gambia (Chapter 10)>>

Several of the chapter authors also had media engagement promoting the book.

Report: Constitutional Law Developments in The Gambia: 2020

We are pleased to announce our 2020 titled: Constitutional Law Developments in The Gambia: 2020.

This report provides an overview of constitutional developments in The Gambia in 2020, highlighting constitution-building processes, law reforms, and constitutional cases.

PRESS STATEMENT: LAW HUB GAMBIA URGES THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GAMBIA TO DROP FALSE INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING CHARGES AGAINST MADI JOBARTEH

Law Hub Gambia wishes to extend support and solidarity to Madi Jobarteh, a human rights defender who also happens to be one of the contributors of Law Hub Gambia. Madi was, on Tuesday 30 June 2020, invited to Kairaba Police Station for questioning and eventually charged with false information and broadcasting in accordance with Section 181A (1) of the Gambian Criminal Code.

Madi Jobarteh had commented on the Government’s failure to investigate and take actions on the deaths of Messrs. Ousman Darboe, Kebba Secka and Haruna Jatta. Law Hub Gambia finds this action of the Government of The Gambia in contravention of the rights protected under the Constitution of The Gambia, 1997, such as the right to freedom of expression, as well as various regional and international human rights treaties to which The Gambia is a party to.

Law Hub Gambia is concerned with the arbitrary arrest of Madi Jobarteh and the charges brought against him. We therefore add our voice to the #IAmMadi challenge while calling on the Government of The Gambia, stakeholders and individuals to take a stance against any form of injustice and human rights violations.

We therefore call upon the Government of The Gambia to:

1.    Drop all charges against Madi Jobarteh, as the use of these charges to silence dissent goes against the ethos of democracy; and

 2.    Respect its human rights commitments and obligations and ensure that it fully implements values and principles of good governance and abides by the rule of law.

For more information, please contact

Satang Nabaneh

Editor

Law Hub Gambia

lawhubgambia@gmail.com

www.lawhubgambia.org

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES BILL, 2020

Law Hub Gambia welcomes the tabling of the Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2020 on 8 June 2020 at the second ordinary session of the National Assembly in the 2020 Legislative Year.

The Bill is intended to make provisions for the health care, social support, accessibility, rehabilitation, education and vocational training, communication, employment and work protection and promotion of basic rights for persons with disabilities and for connected matters.

The Bill if passed will be in accordance with the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia, which specifically provides for the protection and rights of persons with disabilities. These provisions include:

•  Section 31, which states that:

(1) The right of the disabled and handicapped to respect and human dignity shall be recognised by the State and society.

(2) Disabled persons shall be entitled to protection against exploitation and to protection against discrimination, in particular as regards access to health services, education and employment.

(3) In any judicial proceedings in which a disabled person is a party, the procedure shall take his or her condition into account.

• Section 33 recognises the equality of all persons before the law and further includes disability as a ground of discrimination.

• Section 216(2) under social objectives provides for the establishment of policies that protect the rights and freedoms of the disabled, the aged, children and other vulnerable members of society to ensure just and equitable social opportunities

The Gambia also ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol on 7 July 2015. The CRPD is an international human rights treaty that promotes and protects the human rights of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

The Gambia is yet to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa (Disability Protocol) was adopted on 30 January 2018. According to Ebenezer Durojaye and Satang Nabaneh:

“The African Disability Rights Protocol is a binding legal document protecting the human rights of persons with disabilities taking into account their lived realities in the continent while maintaining the core values and principles as set out in the CRPD. ”

— E Durojaye & S Nabaneh ‘Human rights and access to healthcare for persons with albinism in Africa’ (2019) 7 African Disability Rights Yearbook 35-58

The Protocol has not come into force as it has yet to be ratified by at least 15 member states.

Resources

Download the Final Draft Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2020

For peer review publications on disability in The Gambia, see:

S Nabaneh ‘Country report: The Gambia’ (2018) 6 African Disability Rights Yearbook, pp. 232- 248.

YM Bah ‘Disability and integration: Gambian experience study report’ (2016) 16(2) Global Journal of Science Frontier Research: I Interdisciplinary, pp. 23-33

Other publications/Reports

GBOS 2013 ‘Population and Housing Census: National disability report’ (2013)

#220Constitution: The National Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Constitution and Electoral Reform Processes in The Gambia

In partnership with Think Young Women, we organized the National Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Constitutional and Electoral Reform Processes in The Gambia with funding from International Republican Institute (IRI), took place at Kairaba Hotel, West Coast Region from Wednesday 13 November to Thursday 14 November 2019.

 The meeting brought together about sixty key stakeholders including representatives from government ministries, National Assembly Members, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Local Government Authorities (LGAs), private sector, human rights advocates, civil society organizations, academia, community representatives and media.

The meeting provided a platform to update stakeholders on the key legal processes and timelines for the next steps after the submission of the draft constitution to the President.  Currently, the Government of The Gambia is embarking on a complete overhaul of the 1997 Constitution and appointed a Commission to draft a new constitution for the country after the end of 22 years of dictatorship under the Jammeh regime. An Act of Parliament was passed in December 2017 i.e. Constitutional Review Commission Act (CRC Act, 2017) that established the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and its terms of reference.  The Commission commenced work in June 2018 and is expected to submit a draft constitution and report to the President in December 2019.  Prior to this, the Commission had announced that it will conduct a second and final round of public consultations in November 2019 before submitting the draft to the President.[1]

Against this background, the theme of the National Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Constitutional and Electoral Reform Processes in The Gambia was: : #220Constitution: What next after the draft?

The first day of the workshop commenced with remarks from Ms. Satang Nabaneh, Founder and Editor at Law Hub Gambia. In her deliberation, she gave an overview of the workshop themes and intentions. She stated that the Law Hub Gambia intends to encourage rule of law and constitutionalism in The Gambia and went further to set out the key objectives of the workshop. She highlighted the need to identify the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in the constitutional and electoral reform processes, to keep citizens informed and engaged in these important historic processes.

Additionally, she highlighted that the National Multi-Stakeholder meeting was designed to facilitate forward-looking debates and conversations, knowledge sharing, sector-wide institutional arrangements, policy and legal framework, strategic planning, networking and partnerships on the constitutional review process. Ms Nabaneh concluded her remarks by sharing the thoughts of Mun’gomba of the Constitutional Review Commission of Zambia who stated that:

“A constitution is not an ordinary piece of legislation. It is the people’s sovereign and inalienable right to determine the form of governance for our country by giving to ourselves a constitution of our own making.”

This was followed by a Goodwill message and Solidarity message from Mr. Madi Jobarteh, Country Representative at Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and Hannah Forster, Executive Director at African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies respectively. Mr. Lamin Lighe, the Electoral Management Specialist at International Foundation for Electoral Services (IFES) in his opening statement, stated that the IFES would be providing technical assistance as the I.E.C. goes through a process of electoral reform. He concluded that we must engage every individual to be confident that this platform will provide the information on the transition and all the processes involved in the transition, adding that commitment is key, and the turnout has shown the commitment of stakeholders involved.

Keynote statement

Ms Satang Nabaneh delivered the keynote statement on the theme Constitutional reform process in The Gambia: The Way Forward

 She argued that to avoid the pitfalls of the past including the outcomes of the 1996 National Consultative Committee. As well as the retrogressive actions taken on the draft report and draft constitution submitted by the then Constitutional Review Commission, which resulted in a constitution that did not meet our aspirations as Gambians, it becomes pertinent that this time around there is proactive and committed engagement by all citizens and citizen groups in the process. She addressed the question: What next After the collation of our 'wish list'?

She highlighted that the constitutional reform process is envisaged to provide us a new constitutional framework to deal with perennial ills such as dictatorship, repression, human rights violations, corruption and mismanagement of state property, and poverty.

Panels

Panel discussions were held on the first day to open conversations on the legal processes and timelines that will follow the submission of the draft constitution to the President. The first panel comprised of Ms. Maria Saine from the Law Hub Gambia, Siyat Gaye from the International Republican Institute, Yankuba Manjang, Constitutional Review Commission, and Papa Njie, Secretary General of the People’s Progressive Party. Two other panel discussions took place, centered on democracy building processes with focus on electoral reforms, as well as citizen consultation, engagement and education. It was noted that the IEC should make the necessary proposals for the electoral reform processes, and a civic education agenda should be considered by the National Centre for Civic Education in its plan.

On the second day, participants engaged in two final panel discussions on contentious issues emerging from the constitutional review processes and consensus building. This was followed by closing remarks from Ms. Robina Namusisi, the Resident Program Director, I.R.I.  who thanked the Think Young Women and Law Hub Gambia teams for coming up with this timely engagement. She added that I.R.I. is in a front row in this process and are glad to participate in close partnership with IFES. 

Event in national media

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[1] The Draft Constitution was published by the CRC on 16 November 2019 and is opened for inputs until 15 December 2019, available https://crc220.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CRC-DRAFT-CONSTITUTION.pdf.