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 Furthermore, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees facilitates the local integration of refugees through various livelihood support mechanisms. ARTICLE 4: RIGHT TO LIFE AND INTEGRITY OF PERSONS “Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right”. Constitutional and Judicial Measures Section 18 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life. However, the Constitution permits the imposition of the death sentence by a competent for a criminal offence punishable by the death penalty. The Constitution further limits the imposition of the death penalty as a punishment to offences involving violence or administration of any toxic substance resulting in the death of another person. In addition to this, Section 18 (4) further permits the loss of life in reasonable and justifiable circumstances where life is lost as a result of use of force in the ‘defence of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of property, in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained, for the purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny, in order to prevent the commission by that person a of criminal offence, or if he or she dies as a result of a lawful act of war.’ Furthermore, Gambian law provides procedural guarantees, including the right to a fair hearing by an independent tribunal, the presumption of innocence, the provision of legal aid at the expense of the State, the minimum guarantees for the defence and the right to review by a higher tribunal prescribed must be observed before the death penalty can be applied. These rights are applicable in addition to the particular right to seek pardon. Currently, there are twenty-three (23) prisoners sentenced to death, out of which twenty-one (21) were convicted for murder; one (1) for unlawfully causing death and one (1) for manslaughter. It is worth noting that despite the fact that the death penalty remains on the statute books since 1995, the only executions took place in 2013 when nine death row prisoners were executed. Since then, the moratorium which existed prior to 2013 has been restored. In 2017, the President announced a moratorium and signed the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been signed and ratified. 27