Threats to #EndFGM Law in The Gambia
Posted: 22 March, 2024 Filed under: Musu Bakoto Sawo, Satang Nabaneh | Tags: ACERWC, African Commission and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, anti-FGM campaigners, bodily integrity, cultural heritage, female circumcision, female genital mutilation, fgm, gender-based violence, human rights, Imam Abdoulie Fatty, international outcry, lack of information, legal instruments, Maputo Protocol, Private Member’s Bill, protection of human rights, religious beliefs, The Gambia, Women's Act of 2010, Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015, Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2024, Yahya Jammeh 17 Comments |
Author: Satang Nabaneh Legal Scholar & Human Rights Practitioner |
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Author: Musu Bakoto Sawo Gambian feminist and human rights lawyer |
In 2015, The Gambia introduced legislation banning female genital mutilation (FGM) through an amendment of the Women’s Act of 2010, following decades of advocacy and sensitization efforts led by civil society organisations (CSOs) and community groups. Section 32A of the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015 makes it an offence for any person to engage in female circumcision. Whoever contravenes it is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment of three years or a fine or both. The Act also stipulates a life sentence when the circumcision results in death. Section 32B (1) addresses those who commission the procedure, stipulating that ‘a person who requests, incites or promotes female circumcision by providing tools or by any other means commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years or a fine of fifty thousand Dalasis or both’. In addition, a fine of ten thousand Dalasis (approximately $153) as provided in section 32B (2) of the Act is levied against anyone who knows about the practice and fails to report it without a good cause.
The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in Africa
Posted: 11 March, 2022 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Beijing Declaration, essential services, female genital mutilation, gender-based violence, HIV, human rights instruments, lack of information, Maputo Protocol, maternal mortality, Sexual and reproductive health, sexual and reproductive rights Leave a commentAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Post-doctoral Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Sexual and reproductive health and rights has been recognized to be embodied in human rights instruments. The achievement of sexual and reproductive health relies on realizing sexual and reproductive rights. This means that States have general obligations to respect, protect and fulfill these rights. Despite these obligations, violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are evident, including denial of essential services such as obstetric care, lack of high-quality care, access to safe abortion, female genital mutilation (FGM), and early marriage. With regard to HIV infections, the WHO African region remains the most severely affected, with nearly 1 in every 25 adults (3.6%) living with HIV and accounting for more than two-thirds of the people living with HIV worldwide.
Attempts at constitutional reform in The Gambia: Whither the Draft Constitution?
Posted: 26 October, 2020 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Adama Barrow, Constitution Promulgation Bill, constitution-drafting process, Constitutional Reform, Constitutional Review Commission, CRC, dictatorship, Draft Constitution, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Final Draft Constitution and Report, National Transitional Justice Programme, New Constitution, The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh 1 CommentAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Post-doctoral Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The Gambia’s constitution-drafting process, aimed at ushering in a third Republic, has reached an unfortunate dead-end. More than two years after the constitutional review process began, and after a highly acrimonious and polarised debate in the National Assembly, Parliament, one week ago (on 22 September 2020), rejected the proposed Constitution Promulgation Bill, 2020 (‘the Bill’). The Bill would have enabled the eventual promulgation the Constitution of the Gambia, 2020 (‘Draft Constitution’) and the repeal of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, 1997 (‘1997 Constitution’). Twenty-three lawmakers in the National Assembly voted against the Bill, while thirty-one supported it. This was, however, not a big enough majority to meet the threshold requirement of three-quarters of members needed to effect constitutional change. The Draft Constitution could, therefore, not be put to a referendum.
Promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights for women with albinism in Africa
Posted: 11 September, 2020 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Africa, albinism, contraception, CRPD, discrimination, have limited knowledge on albinism, health care, human rights violations, infanticide, International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, lack of access to education, Maputo Protocol, maternal care, physical abuse, physical attacks, sexual violence, stereotypes, stigma, unemployment, unwanted pregnancies Leave a commentAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Post-doctoral Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Discrimination and stigma relating to persons with albinism remain the norm in many Africa countries. Persons with albinism have been subjected to gross human rights violations. In some extreme cases, persons with albinism in the African region have been killed for rituals or subjected to other physical abuse. While attention has been given to the killings of persons with albinism worldwide, little attention has been given to other human rights violations they encounter while seeking social services, particularly health care services. Deep-rooted prejudices and stereotypes about persons with albinism tend to aggravate human rights violations they experience. Discrimination against persons with albinism can lead to deleterious health consequences and at the same time hinder access to care for them.
#IAmToufah makes the message clear: We are not going to wish the rape crisis away
Posted: 25 July, 2019 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: #IAmToufah, #Jammeh2Justice, #TimeIsUp, culture of rape, Fatou ‘Toufah’ Jallow, gender-based violence, human rights abuses, President Jammeh, rape, sexual crimes, sexual violence, The Gambia, women's rights, Women’s Act 2010 Leave a commentAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Project Officer, Women Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
In dealing with past human rights abuses and upholding standards of respect for human rights, The Gambia’s transition from an abusive regime to democracy must also entail justice for victims of gender-based violence. Consequently, the most illustrative example of addressing sexual violence being part of the democratisation of society happened last month when 23-year-old former beauty queen, Fatou ‘Toufah’ Jallow accused former President Jammeh of rape.
Toufah detailed her story from the starting point of winning the state-sponsored beauty pageant in 2014 when she was 18 years old. Over the next few months, Jammeh lavished her with cash gifts and other favors including installation of running water in her family house. She was offered a position as a “protocol girl,” to work at the State House, which she declined. She also turned down his marriage proposal. During a pre-Ramadan Quran recital at State House, Jammeh locked her in a room and told her: “There’s no woman that I want that I cannot have.” She said that he then hit and taunted her, injected her with a liquid, and raped her. Days later, she fled to neighboring Senegal.
The unspoken: Unsafe abortion in The Gambia and the necessity for legal reform
Posted: 13 March, 2018 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: back street abortions, family planning, Gambia, health care, illegal abortion, medical cost, Penal Code, religious traditions, restrictive abortion laws, The Gambia Family Planning Association, unsafe abortion, unwanted pregnancy, Women’s Act, women’s sexual and reproductive rights 1 Comment
Author: Satang Nabaneh
Project Officer, Women Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
In the Gambian context, the right of women to an informed choice and access to family planning and appropriate health-care service remains contentious due to the socio-cultural and religions dimensions. Being a society where deep-seated traditions and the Islamic religion play a major part in the life of a person and society, issues of sexuality and procreation are generally interpreted accordingly.
The Gambia has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Africa, which criminalises abortion based on colonially inherited penal code (Criminal Code, Act no. 25 of 1933). The Criminal Code follows the abortion law as provided in the English Offences against the Person Act of 1861 and subsequent interpretation by the Courts such as in the 1938 case of R v Bourne (3 ALL ER 615, [1939] 1 KB 687).
Suppressing dissent: The Gambian reality
Posted: 19 April, 2016 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: 1997 Constitution, Abubacarr Saidykhan, Amnesty International, Babucarr Ceesay, Ban Ki-moon, deprivation of life, detention, Ebrima Barry, Gambia Students Union (GAMSU), human rights violations, Human Rights Watch, immunity, insurrection, Lasana Jobarteh, law enforcement, mutiny, Ousainou Darboe, peaceful protests, President Jammeh, Public Order Act, right to protest, riot, rule of law, Solo Sandeng, The Gambia, United Democratic Party (UDP), United Nations, unlawful arrests, use of force 3 CommentsAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Gambian Reporter to the Oxford Constitutions Online Project
The right to freedom of assembly as guaranteed by the 1997 Constitution includes the right to take part in peaceful demonstrations. However, people are deterred from organising and participating in such demonstrations. Section 18(4)(C) allows for the use of force and the deprivation of life in the ‘suppression of a riot, insurrection or mutiny’. This gives law enforcement officials with immunity when a person dies under circumstances in which reasonable force was used.
On Thursday, 14 April 2016, Mr. Solo Sandeng, National Organising Secretary and other members of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) were arrested for leading a peaceful protest for electoral reforms and demanding for the resignation of President Jammeh. Two days after the arrest, senior members of the UDP, including the leader Ousainou Darboe, confirmed in a press conference the death of Solo Sandeng while in detention. Lawyer Darboe also stated that two detained female protesters were also in a coma following their arrest and alleged brutal torture by the security agents. Angered by the harsh treatment meted on the detainees, Darboe and a group of UPD stalwarts led began a protest march but were swiftly rounded up by Gambia’s security force and arrested. Eyewitnesses said the security agents fired tear gas at the crowd to disperse it.
Banning female circumcision in The Gambia through legislative change: The next steps
Posted: 19 January, 2016 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Africa, Anti-FGM Board, Anti-FGM Prosecution Unit, Domestic Violence Act, female circumcision, female genital mutilation, fgm, harmful traditional practices, Maputo Protocol, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, right to dignity, right to health, Sexual Offences Act, The Gambia, women's rights, Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2015 19 CommentsAuthor: Satang Nabaneh
Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of The Gambia.
There is nothing more powerful than a decision made at the right time, especially one which is a desideratum. So it was with the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia. From the coastal village of Brufut, on the chilly night of 24 November 2015, President Jammeh declared a ban on FGM stating that it was a cultural and not a religious practice (that is not to say that the practice would have been justifiable if it was a religious practice, given its well documented harmful effects). The news was as unexpected as it was music to the ear. It was every campaigner’s wish, to see an end to FGM in The Gambia. This was swiftly followed by the passing of the Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2015 by the National Assembly on 2 December 2015 to prohibit female circumcision. The amendment addresses one of the key deficiencies of the Women’s Act 2010 which was the absence of a provision on eliminating harmful traditional practices. The Amendment Act added sections 32A and 32B in the Women’s Act. With the enactment, The Gambia joined a number of African countries in adopting legislation as a reform strategy for ending FGM.
Crusade to root out homosexuality like malaria
Posted: 7 April, 2014 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Anti-Homosexuality Act, Criminal Code, gays, gross indecency, homosexuality, human rights, Human Rights Commission, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, President Yahya Jamme, rights, The Gambia, Uganda, United Nation, United States 1 Comment
Author: Satang Nabaneh
Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of The Gambia.
The Gambia is largely Muslim-dominated, with about 95 per cent of the population being Muslims. It is also highly traditional. Thus, Islam significantly influences people’s ways of lives. In the recent years, there has been much discussion, in the media and political fora, about homosexuality and homosexual rights in The Gambia. The attitude of the ordinary Gambian towards homosexuals is outright hostile, fanned by the extreme condemnation from both political and religious leaders. People are made to believe that homosexuals are cursed and support for homosexual rights would spell doom for Islam and Gambian culture, whatever that means. Due to this charged hostility towards homosexuals, there are only few lone voices that dare to challenge current beliefs about and hostility towards homosexuality or campaign to hold the state accountable for the respect, protection and fulfillment of the sexuality rights. The criminalisation of homosexuality provides the state with an opportunity to violate the rights of homosexual with impunity and absolute disregard for the rule of law.
The arch opponent of homosexuals and their rights is the president of The Gambia. During the recent celebration s to mark The Gambia’s independence celebration, on 18 February 2014, President Yahya Jammeh stated that his government “will fight these vermin called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes; if not more aggressively”. He further noted that The Gambia would not spare any homosexual, and that no diplomatic immunity would be respected for any diplomat found guilty or accused of being a homosexual. The next day, United States’ Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the President Jammeh’s comments, calling on the international community to send a clear signal that statements of this nature are unacceptable and have no place in the public dialogue.
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