ECOWAS Approval for Establishment of Special Tribunal for the Gambia

Madi Jobarteh, Executive Director

Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice EFSCRJ

EFSCRJ hereby welcomes the decision by the ECOWAS Authority at its 66^th Ordinary Session in approving the establishment of the Special Tribunal for The Gambia. We consider this decision as a fulfilment of the duty of ECOWAS in light of the letter and spirit of the ECOWAS Protocol on Good Governance and Democracy, the ECOWAS Vision 2050, and the expressed statements and engagements that ECOWAS has had with the Gambia in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. The approval for the establishment of the Special Tribunal is therefore a logical conclusion of the path and role that ECOWAS has played to ensure the departure of Dictator Yaya Jammeh and the triumph of the 2016 election results. 

We wish to equally commend the Gambia Government for undertaking a transitional justice program in 2017 leading to the creation of the TRRC which provided much of the information necessary to ensure justice and accountability. We further commend the Government for creating the necessary legal frameworks for the setting up and running of the Special Tribunal. 

Having noted that, EFSCRJ wishes to call on the Gambia Government to realize the immense responsibility placed on its hands by the ECOWAS decision to ensure that the establishment and functioning of the Special Tribunal is conducted in accordance with the principles and standards of professionalism, transparency, and efficiency. We urge the Government to take urgent steps with due diligence and commitment to expedite the setting up of this institution and ensure that justice is not only done but seen to be done. We need not remind the Government of the value and meaning of this court in terms of promoting peace, justice, reconciliation, and reparations. For that matter, the affairs of this court must be handled with utmost honesty, openness, and inclusion to generate total trust and confidence in all Gambians hence guarantee its legitimacy and relevance. 

Furthermore, EFSCRJ hereby reminds the Government that apart from prosecutions, the TRRC has recommended reparations, legal and institutional reforms, memorialization, interdiction of certain individuals from holding public office, as well as the abandonment of certain malpractices in public institutions and within the political space and society. We urge the Government to equally act with diligence and effectiveness on all these recommendations, some of which bear no cost to implement. 

More than two years after the release of the Government White Paper on the TRRC Recommendations, we are hugely concerned at the poor rate of implementation of the recommendations. As highlighted in the Implementation Dashboard (https://www.gm-nhrc.org/trrc-dashboard) of The National Human Rights Commission, we call on the Government to expedite the process of implementation to provide full closure to victims. The scars of Dictatorship remain deep and prevalent on victims and the wider society hence the need to expedite implementation cannot be over-emphasized. We cannot fully institutionalize the ‘Never Again’ agenda unless the TRRC Recommendations are implemented in full. 

In the Spirit of Edward Francis Small, For The Gambia Our Homeland 

Madi Jobarteh

Executive Director

Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice

EFSCRJ