By Lamin Kujabi
Mr. Emmanuel Joof, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), described the state of the human rights in The Gambia as good, noting that human right is a work in progress.
“There is much that can be improved but if you are comparing The Gambia to where we were before some years ago, we have really achieved a great success in the area of human rights”.
Mr Joof had led members of the National Human Rights Commission to State House to discuss with President Barrow the state of human rights in the country and related issues.
Mr Joof further reported that in the area of civil and political rights, there have been success stories. “Example, The Gambia was known as a country where you had extrajudicial killings, force disappearance, and torture was rampant. These things do not happen again in the country and we commend this government for that,” he pointed out.
He went on: “There are lot of areas that we can improve on; such as economic, cultural and social rights, and rights to clean environment. Also, there are other emerging issues that government should look into; example the rise in the use of drugs; especially among the youthful population. This has an impact on our society.”
The Chairman also mentioned the rise in hate speech on the social media; and sexual and gender based violence.
He expressed satisfaction with the ban of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and thanked the government and the National Assembly members who voted to make sure that the act is criminalised.
Mr Joof said the President was very positive and that he expressed political will to support national human rights institutions.
