Victims Centre, TRRC to sign Memorandum of Understanding

By Fatou Touray Last updated Oct 4, 2021

The Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations (Victims Centre) and the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) have announced a cooperation agreement to establish the terms and conditions under which the Victims’ Center will engage with, support and be assisted by the TRRC as well as other coordination, communication and collaboration frameworks and mechanisms between the two institutions.

The agreement, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), will be signed between the Victims’ Centre and the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission on Tuesday, the 9th of October 2018, at 12:00 noon, at the premises of the Victims’ Centre located in Senegambia, Kololi.

The Memorandum of Understanding formalizes the mutual interaction and strengthens the existing relationship between the TRRC and the Victims’ Center at the strategic and working level, focusing on the development of a victim centric approach to ensure that the dignity and honor of victims is always at the forefront of our work.

The TRRC was set up by an Act of The Gambia’s National Assembly in December 2017, to investigate and establish an impartial historical record of the nature, causes and extent of violations and abuses of human rights committed during the period July 1994 to January 2017, to consider the granting of reparations to victims and for connected matters, and to help prevent a recurrence of human rights violations and dictatorship in this country.

The mission of the Victims’ Centre is to be an advocacy platform for truth, justice, accountability, reconciliation and reparations and to promote human rights for all.

The TRRC and the Victims Centre have the shared objective of serving the public interest towards the slogan, ‘Never Again’. This MOU provides for continued strengthening of future cooperation between the two institutions in achieving common goals that will promote justice, peace and national unity.

Additionally, all victims of the 1994 coup d’état, both civilians and soldiers, are kindly invited to register their complaints at the Victims Centre.