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 The Women’s Act 2010 specifically provides under Section 14(3) (e) that it is the Governments obligation to eliminate all forms of discrimination especially all forms of stereotypes and acts of discrimination which perpetrate or tend to perpetrate gender inequality. In addition to the massive nationwide sensitization of grassroots on harmful traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child marriage, the Women’s Act 2010 has been amended to criminalise Female Genital Circumcision in 2016. Furthermore, the Children’s Act 2005 was also amended to criminalise early Child Marriage and betrothals in 2015. ARTICLE 18: PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY RIGHTS OF WOMEN, CHILDREN THE ELDERLY OR AGED AND DISABLE Similar to most social institutions in Africa, the family is the source of human and social advancement for the realisation of the full human potential in The Gambia. In light of this, several provisions in the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia provides for the protection of individuals from discrimination and other forms of unfair and inhuman treatment as well as for the promotion of the rights of all persons most notably, women, children and the disabled amongst them. Most of these provisions are progressive in their potential contribution to the protection of social welfare in The Gambia and therefore serve to strengthen the family unit as an institution widely recognised as one of the most fundamental agents of social advancement. In the past two decades, The Gambia has undertaken measures to address the rights of women and children, the aged and persons living with disabilities and to combat gender based discrimination. Most of these have involved legislative reforms, whereby important laws like the Women`s Act of 2010, the Children`s Act of 2005, the Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 and the Tourism Offences Act of 2003, Domestic Violence Act, 2013 and the Sexual Offences Act, 2013 have been enacted. These important laws draw on the Constitutional provisions for the protection and preservation of the rights of the family. Without seeking to provide an exhaustive list of all of these provisions, it is important to identify and further elaborate on the following; 86