Now that the TRRC has submitted its recommendations, the government can bring to light the truth about this dark period in the country’s history and ensure that the victims can receive reparations for what they suffered.
Michèle Eken, Amnesty International West Africa researcher.
“Perpetrators, some of whom are still in the security apparatus should be brought to court and authorities must ensure that these state-sponsored human rights violations are never repeated.”
Background
Today, the TRRC commissioners of the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) submitted their final report to President Adama Barrow.
Established in December 2017, the main objective of the TRRC was to create an impartial historical record of violations and abuses of human rights from July 1994 to January 2017 in order to “promote healing and reconciliation, respond to the needs of the victims, address impunity, and prevent a repetition of the violations and abuses suffered by making recommendations for the establishment of appropriate preventive mechanisms, including institutional and legal reforms.”
It was also meant to establish and make known the fate or whereabouts of disappeared victims and grant reparations to victims in appropriate cases. On 15 October 2018, President Adama Barrow appointed and swore in the 11 Commissioners of the TRRC which began its hearings on 7 January 2019. It submitted its Interim Report to the Government on 29 April 2020.
