Gambia: Yahya Jammeh- A threat to human rights in Africa

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) notes with concern the escalation of unbridled attacks in the on human rights in the Gambia. Since the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydera and several other alleged extra judicial killings, disappearance in detention, the wanton abuse of human rights especially the right of the freedom of expression and media freedoms have increased. In his speech last week, President Yahya Jammeh specifically:
 
· Re-affirmed his outright disbelief in the value of human rights and the need to protect and advance them.
· Swore a sacred oath to [personally?] kill all human right activists in the Gambia.
· Assured the world that the death penalty provided in the Gambian constitution is not for decoration but will be implemented regularly.

This is the first time a President anywhere is the world would publicly announce his intention to kill human rights activists. Ironically, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the continental human rights body is based in Banjul, the Gambia.
 
In a related but separate development, the Gambian government has submitted a draft amendment to the ECOWAS Commission of the Supplementary Protocol which instituted the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. The amendment intends to limit the ECOWAS Court’s jurisdiction until after the exhaustion of domestic remedies; the ECOWAS Committee of Experts is scheduled to meet on September 28, 2009 to consider the Gambian proposal.
 
This proposal is Gambia’s only engagement with the Community Court of Justice since it decided previously that the Gambian government should produce the journalist Ebrima Manneh who disappeared without trace while in detention. The Gambian government also refused to allow the security agents responsible for Manneh’s abduction to appear before the Community Court. The clear purpose of these amendments is to weaken the capacity of the Court to deal effectively with tyrannical governments trampling on citizens’ rights.  
 
The Gambia has also proposed that "with respect to human rights cases, the Court should only have jurisdiction in respect of international instruments ratified by the respondent country"; this is clearly in an attempt to avoid the ECOWAS Community Court’s ruling against it in the case brought against the Gambia by its citizen who was tortured while in detention (Musa Saidykhan vs. The Gambia). The Gambia is one of the rare African countries which have not ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading treatments.
 
The amendments proposed by the Gambia are part of a grand design to limit and frustrate the good work that ECOWAS and its Community Court have been doing on strengthening of democracy and human rights. The intention is to make the Gambia a safe haven for the abuse of human rights in the region. In view of these developments, CDD specifically calls on:
 
ECOWAS:
· The ECOWAS Commission to promptly discard the Gambian proposal for non conformity with ECOWAS democratic principles.
· The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice to note President Jammeh’s threats to human right activists and to hold him accountable should any human right activist working in the Gambia come to any harm.
· The Chair of the ECOWAS, H.E. President Umaru Musa Yar Adua and other Heads of State to intervene urgently in this matter by calling Yahya Jammeh to order and demand that he tenders an apology to human right activists and puts in place a mechanism that will ensure the safety of all human right activists working in The Gambia.

The African Union
· To immediately relocate the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, whose headquarters is in Banjul, the Gambia to another country. The location of such a prestigious institution in the Gambia can no longer be justified nor is the safety of human right activists who have to engage with this continental human right body guaranteed.

To the Human Rights Community
· The CDD appreciates the extent of danger President Jammeh’s recent statement poses to our work, we therefore agree that until the above demands are met, human right activists should not participate in any activity organized by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the Gambia. Signed