THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Progress has been registered in the areas of maternal and infant mortality as revealed in the 2013 demographic and health survey conducted nationally. In 2013, maternal mortality declined from 730/100000 live births in 2001 to 433/100000 live births. Infant mortality has declined from 75/1000 live births in 1999 to 34/1000 live births in 2013 demographic and health survey (GDHS). The insufficient number of trained, skilled and motivated personnel and inadequate medical equipment has limited the impact of these interventions. 4.3 Provision of abortion (Article 14 (2)(c)) Abortion remains criminalised in The Gambia except when the health or life of the mother is at risk. However, the continued practice of clandestine abortions remains an issue and a concern as it leads to adverse consequences on the health of women and girls. Due to the near total ban on abortion, this has resulted in the paucity of reliable data on the national burden of abortion. According to the 2015 HMIS report, nearly 1607 cases of post abortion were treated within a year (MoHSW, 2016). However, many more might have been conducted underground and not reported to reflect the true magnitude. Due to continued public support for the near complete ban on abortion, the Government is yet to adopt specific measure to revise legislation criminalising abortion. Notwithstanding, through the work of The Gambia Family Planning centre and non-Governmental organisations such as Think Young Women, Action Aid The Gambia, campaigns continue to be undertaken to raise awareness on the provision of contraception along with the dangers of clandestine abortions. 4.4 HIV/AIDS Article 14(1)(d)) Health policies and programmes have contributed to low prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS in The Gambia. Furthermore, the HIV and AIDS Act has been enacted to ensure adequate addressing of HIV and AIDS by the Government. The National AIDS Secretariat (NAS) is responsible for the overall coordination and management of the national HIV response. The National AIDS Secretariat continues to deliver on its mandate of coordination and monitoring of the national response, in addition to fulfilling its responsibility as a Principal Recipient (PR) for the Global Fund (GF) Round 8 HIV Grant. 147