Mr. Salieu Taal, one of the founders of The Gambia Has Decided movement has highlighted the role of civil society organizations in building a better Gambia. Mr Taal was speaking at the national stakeholders conference on justice and human rights at Kairaba Beach Hotel.
“We must create a new Gambian who is educated, enlightened and informed to build a better Gambia for all,” Salieu Taal stated.
Mr. Taal explained that the role of civil society is advocacy for justice, human rights and good governance, saying it is a barometer of telling the government what the people really want. He talked about the need for institutional reforms, respect for human rights and democracy to value the change that happened in the country. He also talked about the need for communication between the government and the civil society because they are not enemies.
“The civil society makes the government to govern better in the best interest of the country,” he pointed out.
The co-founder of the GambiaHasDecided made a brief explanation of how the movement was formed. He said the movement was non partisan which was initially formed to amplify the voice of the Gambian people when they went to the December 1 presidential polls to removed dictatorship. He said the first hashtag “Jammeh Must Go” came up after the former president rejected the results and later it was changed to “GambiaHasDecided”.
Mr. Taal explained that the idea of forming a movement came after the former dictator rejected the results causing confusion in the country. He said there was ranting on the social media against the actions of the former dictator which they felt was not enough so they decided to come up with the movement. He said they first started to change their profiles on the social media, print t-shirts and later printed billboards.
Mr. Gaye Sowe, Executive Director of IHRDA has elaborated on the need for institutional building and strengthening as a key to a functional democracy. He talked about the prison laws which he said are redundant and outdated because many of the rules were colonial laws. He made recommendations to change them to international best practices.
Director Sowe highlighted the independence and challenges of the national centre for civic education particularly problems of staff training and funds to execute its functions of civic awareness on the media. He talked about the inadequate governing structures of the country’s police force relating to political interference, low salaries and human rights training among other things. He also talked about the lack of resources and executive interference of the Ombudsman.
Director Sowe further highlighted the need to amend the section that empowers members of the National Intelligence Agency now State Intelligence Agency to arrest and detain anyone without any warrant. He also made recommendations to increase salaries to retain Gambian lawyers in the justice department. He called on the executive to stop meddling in the justice department.
Meanwhile, Ms. Sabrina Mahtani of the Amnesty International added her voice to encouraged dialogue between the government and the civil society.
“I think The Gambia should be the human rights capital of West Africa,” Sabrina Mahtani said.
Ms. Mahtani expressed hope in the new government to create better environment for human rights defenders in the Gambia.
