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
PART A: THE REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND
PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
I.
Preparatory Process
For the preparation of this report, the Government established a multi stakeholder task force comprising of
the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance & Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Lands
& Regional Administration, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, Industry, Employment & Regional
Integration, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Basic & Secondary Education, the Judiciary, Ministry of Interior,
Ministry of Higher Education, Science & Technology, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, Women’s Bureau,
the National Assembly as well as the participation of Non-Governmental Organizations, International
Organizations based in The Gambia. Under the guidance and supervision of the Ministry of Justice, a
drafting team undertook the task of preparing the report after conducting extensive consultations with
stakeholders in relevant Ministries and Institutions to obtain information on the progress made in the
implementation of the Charter since the last report in 1992.
A two day consultative workshop was organised in May 2018 in collaboration with the Centre for Human
Rights, University of Pretoria, where participants drawn from Government Ministries, Institutions, Civil
Societies Organisations (CSOs) and other partners provided comments and inputs on the first draft.
A validation workshop was held on Wednesday the 1 st of August 2018, wherein the second draft report was
presented again to participants from both Government and CSOs for consideration. Their contributions,
suggestions and recommendations made therein, were taken into account in developing the final report for
submission to the African Commission.
This report therefore constitutes a consolidated report of The Gambia’s twelve (12) outstanding Periodic
Reports for the periods 1994- 2018 on the measures taken by the Government of The Gambia towards the
realisation of the promotion and protection of Human and Peoples’ Rights in the country.
17