Gambia’s Human Rights Record in Focus at UN Minister Marie Saine Firdaus in Geneva

In the morning of 10 February 2010, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) reviewed the human rights situation in The Gambia. According to report reaching Foroyaa, the Gambian delegation was headed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Marie Saine-Firdaus. In her opening remarks, Mrs. Saine-Firdaus emphasised the Gambia’s progress in promoting human rights through the ratification of international treaties and reform of the national Constitution. She also acknowledged shortcomings in the Gambia’s promotion of human rights, which she attributed to economic, security and cultural challenges.

The UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. 48 UN Member countries are to be reviewed in sets of 16 countries in three UPR sessions in 2010. The Gambia is among those to be reviewed in February, the other 15 countries include Qatar, Nicaragua, Italy, El Salvador, Bolivia, Fiji, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Angola, Iran, Madagascar, Iraq, Slovenia, Egypt and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The UPR is a state-driven process under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations. This review is done in the form of an interactive dialogue which takes place in Geneva and where 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council and all other UN members are able to raise pertinent questions on the performance of a country under review and make recommendations as to how to improve their situation of human rights. The report of this Working Group, which includes human rights recommendations that the country under review agree to, is then adopted by the Human Rights Council. However, NGOs and Civil Society have the opportunity to make their input in the process both before and after the Geneva event.

The UPR therefore allows countries to take a critical look at their human rights situation, discuss challenges they face with peers (other countries) as well as national stakeholders and take the necessary steps to improve the human rights situation in their countries.

Other States expressed concern on a range of topics regarding Human Rights in the Gambia and made productive recommendations. There was a clear division between States that were concerned with the Gambia’s record on civil and political rights and those who focused on development issues, and women and children’s rights. Critical comments which the Gambian delegation was confronted with focused on: 

• Allegations of lack of cooperation with the Human Rights Council and various treaty bodies in meeting reporting requirements.
• Allegations of unwillingness to engage with UN special procedures, particularly the Special Rapporteur on Torture
• Allegations of violations of freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
• Allegations of arbitrary arrest, detention, disappearances and killings of journalists, security prisoners, human rights defenders and other political prisoners.
• The prevalence of violence against women, trafficking, sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation, and the need for specific legislation to address these issues.

Critical recommendations which the Gambia is to consider cover areas such as;
• Encouraging the Gambia to ratify international treaties, particularly the Convention Against Torture, the optional protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Gambia.
• Initiating Prison reform and improvement of prison conditions.
• Abolition of the death penalty.
• The establishment of a National Human Rights Institution in line with the Paris Principles.
• Acknowledging the challenges The Gambia faces in implementing human rights norms in a context of extreme poverty and encouraging international assistance.

The Gambia responded twice during the session. The first response lasted twenty minutes; the second was very brief and included concluding remarks. The representative of The Gambia engaged with difficult questions, but did not concede to all the concerns expressed by many States on civil and political rights.




¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤