The event started with the welcome address delivered by Mrs. Amie Bensouda, Senior Lawyer and Managing Partner of Amie Bensouda & Co She introduced the speakers and gave a brief synopsis of their background and the work each speaker has done in developing constitutionalism and attainment of rule of law in The Gambia. She also introduced the editors and contributors and the book to the audience and finally gave a run-down of the programme.
The welcome address was followed by the address of the ABA ROLI Gambia Country Director and Chief of Party, Mr. Elysee Sindayigaya who gave the introductory remarks. In his statement, Mr. Sindayigaya expressed optimism that the Dialogue will trigger a national discussion on the constitutional reform agenda since it slowed down a few two years ago. He also stated “there is still much needed for constitutional reform, and this need has not vanished. But the question is how do we move forward and is there a way to trigger this discussion and revisit the process going forward ?” Mr Sindayigaya concluded his statement by sharing ABA ROLI’s intention of supporting The Gambia Transitional Justice which it has already begun
This was followed by Mr. Alieu Jallow, Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Justice, representing the Hon Attorney General and Minister of Justice In his opening statement, Mr Jallow stated that he considers the Dialogue as a great step towards the Ministry’s efforts of bringing about a successor Constitution that will stand the test of time. Hence, in his view, the Dialogue should be one of stocktaking and sober reflection. He further stated that stakeholders should look back and identify the obstacles that impeded the constitution-making process and how they can be surmounted. He congratulated the contributors and editors for a job well done and encourage more initiatives like this one.
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.
Law Hub Gambia, with support from the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) and in partnership with the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) organized a dialogue on “Building strong Rule of Law Institutions” and the book launch of “The Gambia in Transition” Towards a new Constitutional Order.”
This event was held on 21st October 2022 as a side event at the 73rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
Seizing momentum for constitutional change
Hon. Commissioner Janet R. Sallah-Njie, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa and former Commissioner of the Constitutional Review Commission of The Gambia, in her statement, noted the need for a new constitution in The Gambia. She spoke at length about the need for a new constitution in The Gambia, stating that reintroducing the Draft Constitution would be ideal as making amendments to the current one would include too many amendments and may only address some of the issues She shared that it's time Gambians examine why the Constitution failed to pass as a “whole” instead of “piecemeal”; otherwise, we find ourselves looking through the wrong end of the telescope Commissioner Sallah-Njie also described the book as diverse as it touches on social, economic, and cultural rights in “New Gambia,” women’s political participation, guarantees of freedom of expression and media, and the democratic electoral regime in The Gambia, amongst others
On women’s political participation, Commissioner Sallah-Njie stated that women’s protection by the law remains limited. She applauded the remarkable work of the authors for providing the current state of affairs regarding women’s political participation in The Gambia. She further stated that despite the considerable progress made, The Gambia has yet to attain the requisite 30% representation, considered the minimum or critical mass level for women to participate effectively in public affairs. There is also currently no constitutional provision that allows for special measures to accelerate substantive equality between women and men.
The panel discussion on “Building Strong Rule of Law Institutions’ comprised of Mr. Njundu Drammeh, Commissioner of the National Human Rights Institution of The Gambia; Ms. Ismene Zarifis, Senior Technical Advisor- ABA ROLI; Mr. Salieu Taal, President of the Gambia Bar Association, and Ms. Anna Njie, President of the Female Lawyers Association of The Gambia.
The Chair of the Programme, Mrs Bensouda introduced the panelist and started the dialogue by asking four key questions to the panelist that facilitated subsequent conversation along with Q & A with the audience
Given that well-functioning government institutions and a government bound by the rule of law are critical to building peace and consolidating the gains within The Gambia’s fragile Transition, the first question asked what are the implications of proceeding with these processes in the absence of constitutional reform? In addressing this question, Mr. Taal gave an analogy of one wanting to build a skyscraper or a story building without having a good foundation. He averred that the Security Sector Reform which has failed and TRRC which is likely to succeed will cumulatively fail if a good foundation, which is a good constitution, is not laid. We described that a building block of a good constitution is one that defines the needs and aspirations of The Gambian people. He further stated that today, Gambians enjoy a lot of privileges not because of the fact that the laws have changed but because the people in charge have a “different dispensation.” He thus posed the question ‘what will happen if tomorrow we have a different Chief Justice or a different Attorney General who decides to use the same legal framework hi h d t i G bi d d i th l f L ? Th h hi hli ht d
Ms Zarifis on her part agreed completely with the points shared by Mr Taal She added that even though the CRC process has been robust and difficult, the entire TJ process in The Gambia has been impressive but the missing link remains the Constitutional review process. She shared that it is fortunate while the TJ process is continuing which may be an opportunity to bring back the Constitutional review process The question for Ms Zarifis however was when and how we take that forward as it is an important piece for the TJ process to be effective.
Ms Njie shared that the Constitution is called the Supreme Law of the land for a reason, which is that all the laws of The Gambia must conform to the Constitution of The Gambia. She shared that following the 2016 presidential election which moved The Gambia away from dictatorial rule every institution in The Gambia embarked on reforms: from the executive to the judiciary to other government departments. However, according to Ms. Njie, it will be difficult for these institutions to make these reforms effective if the Constitution which is the main law guiding their existence is not reformed itself. She was thus of the opinion that before thinking of reforming any institution, The Gambia needs to have a constitution that sets the pace as to how the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary should work. For this, she believes it is necessary to have a new Constitution. She echoed the words shared by Commissioner Sallah-Njie that it is a great disappointment that after all the work that Gambians have put into building the constitution, it failed. She shared the need to have another discussion to identify what the issues are as there could’ve been lapses that were factored in.
For Commissioner Drammeh, the implications of not having a constitutional reform process are many as there is no guarantee that history wouldn’t repeat itself given the current bad laws that The Gambia has. He maintained that the chances of using the laws and institutions in place will
The second question concerned the progress in women’s human rights in The Gambia, including legal provisions that support female leadership and political participation The question focused on what the current implications of this are Is it possible to have reforms on gender equality through incremental changes to the 1997 Constitution having regard to the fact that the new constitution is yet to pass, and it might take a while? In addressing this question, Ms. Njie shared that women in political roles are a strange concept for most Gambians. She however reminded the audience that women have leaders in this country. She referred to chapter six of the book which referred to Nuimi Queens and the Lingueres of Sine and Saloum who ruled for 122 years. So, for her, women in leadership is not a new concept in The Gambia. She further added that it is true that there has been slow progress on gender equality in the country and that the reason there is no gender equality in The Gambia is that there is no equity This, she stated, is because for over 100 years it's men that have been speaking for women That women have not had the opportunity to be on the same platform as men. She shared her disappointment that over 50% of the Gambian populace are women yet women gave 9% representation in parliament. This according to Ms. Njie points to one thing; the lack of political will to set general guidelines on women's empowerment. She further shared that this slow progress can be cured if measures are put in place.
The third line of inquiry explored why did the Constitutional Review Process fail Mr Taal was of the view that the process failed because politicians were divided on some of the issues Commissioner Drammeh also shared the same sentiment and added that the general populace also focused a lot on issues that shouldn’t have been focused on such as the contentious issue of
The final question for the panel focused further attention on how to resuscitate the Draft Constitution Ms Zarifis shared that there is a need to bring back on board, civil society, and stakeholders to participate and engage, and mobilize more.
Ms. Njie shared that there is a need to identify the lapses during the dialogue and find ways of rectifying that, but she believes the main issue was with the political leaders and their representatives in parliament She does not know how involved they were in this process That more awareness is needed for the National Assembly members.
Salieu also shared that there was political will. The question is whether it was genuine or not because the political will is very fluid. He stated that the Draft can be resuscitated by bringing back civil society and political parties and the general populace. Equally important for the citizens to understand why we need a constitution and the consequences of not having one
Commissioner Drammeh stated politicians only act when they believe there is a price to pay for not acting and thinks that message needs to be sent to politicians. He shared that if the National Assembly was informed of the implications of not passing the Draft Constitution, the situation would’ve been different.
The event also showcased the official launch of the book, “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 that provide contextspecific understandings of the past, ongoing and future efforts of constitution-making, protection of human rights and enhancing accountable governance.
One of the editors, Dr. Satang Nabaneh, gave an overview of the Book noting that the 3 yearbook project sought to do a rigorous audit of the state of human rights standards, constitutional reform, and democratic governance in the country. while also exploring the challenges and future prospects. The book also contributes to the roadmap for a new Gambian constitution, which reflects the democratic ethos that enables accountability, transparency, and participatory governance, promoting a free and fair political environment. The volume, she noted, brings together practitioners and scholars of political science, law, human rights, and media studies to discuss issues of governance and democracy, constitution-making, and human rights protection in the Gambia, in response to the social, economic, political, and governance challenges the country faces.
Prof Frans Viljoen, Director, Centre for Human Rights, gave the goodwill message. He expounded upon the ongoing partnership and longstanding history of the Centre with The Gambia. He noted that two of the co-editors (Dr. Satang and Dr. Adem) and 7 of the chapter authors are all alumni of the Centre’s LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. He also shared his appreciation as a member of the editorial board of the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), the addition of the Gambia book as part of the human rights scholarship and repository in the
A commentary on the book by Prof Abdoulaye Saine, Professor Emeritus, Miami University, Oxford, OH, followed the goodwill message In his statement, Prof Saine noted that the collected volume was excellent and well-crafted, anchored in good methodological as well as theoretical foundations, and has an appeal that goes beyond the country. The volume draws from appropriate literature from the law, politics, and comparative politics as well as other disciplines that speak on gender, race, and others wishing the Gambia were used.
He further noted that he considers the book as representing a transition itself. In 1991, David Perfect and Aaron Hughes edited a volume on Gambian studies, and it was an excellent volume. In 2013, Dr. Ebrima Ceesay and Prof. Saine edited a volume on Gambian studies. So really, this book represents a transition in other words all the scholars like him are passing the baton to very young, competitive, and well-trained academics and practitioners. Thus, making the case that the book provides very refreshing details as far as economic and social rights are concerned.
The Keynote Statement was delivered by the Chief Justice of The Gambia, Hon Hassan B Jallow He noted that it is clear that the attainment of the rule of law and respect for human rights requires amongst others a strong and durable constitutional framework and foundation that is able to meet the demands of society, protect human rights through accountability, establish the legitimate authority of the state and uphold the sovereignty of the people
Therefore, the Judiciary has been very attentive to the efforts that have been ongoing to prepare a new constitution for The Gambia as a framework for good governance for this country for generations to come Indeed, the Judiciary, like many persons and entities in the country has been an active participant in the process, preparing and submitting memoranda to the Constitutional Review Commission and holding consultations with the Commission on matters within the mandate of the Judiciary CJ Jallow remarked that the Constitution is not only the source of the establishment and mandates the jurisdictions of the judicature, but it is also the source of authority for all other laws which are applied by the courts That it is the foundation for the rule of law and for human rights The judiciary cannot, therefore, be indifferent to the development of a new constitution
CJ Jallow further reiterated the Judiciary’s commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights through the delivery of quality justice and welcomes the contribution of this book towards that pathway He highlighted the importance of the meeting, particularly in bringing together various actors, including public administrators, CSOs, and human rights defenders and practitioners to reflect on the transitional justice mechanisms, in particular justice and accountability institutions, and what we must do together to achieve not just the ‘Never Again’ mantra but also how to create a better society for ourselves and posterity The gathering is also equally timely as it is coming against the backdrop of and id i ff i constitution-making and accountable governance proce array of local, regional, and international stakeholders
On the book, the Chief Justice complimented the editors and authors for their work and recommended it to Gambian academics, political leaders, constitutional stakeholders, and indeed all persons to read and engage the information, analysis, and reform proposals outlined
On the way forward on the draft constitution, the Chief Justice noted that such a project cannot be abandoned He stated:
"We must revive the process, and 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 that 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 ”
With these remarks, the Hon Chief Justice officially launched the book titled ‘The
Event Youtube Videos (Courtesy of Kerr Fatou)
