Bakau fish market, The Gambia. The plight of Gambian and other West African artisan fishers could soon see a change for the better following an historic ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Photo credit: Ralfszn - Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, The Gambia, Apr 18 2015 (IPS)

It was five in the afternoon and Buba Badjie, a boat captain, had just brought his catch to the shore. He had spent twelve hours at sea off Bakau, a major fish landing site in The Gambia.

Inside the trays strewn on the floor bed of his wooden boat were bonga and catfish. Scores of women crowded around, looking to buy his catch.

“This is just enough to cover my expenses,” he tells IPS, indicating the squirming silvery creatures. “I went up to 20-something kilometres and all we could get was bonga.

“I spent more than 2,500 dalasis (60 dollars) on this one trip,” he confessed.

Badjie, 38, is not a native Gambian. Originally from neighbouring Senegal, he came here as a teenager looking for work. But the sea he has been fishing for almost two decades is no longer the same, he says somberly.

“This trade is about win and loss,” he added. “But nowadays, we have more losses. Recently, I went up to 50-something kilometres to another fishing ground but still no catch.

“The problem is the variations in the weather pattern. Also, we encounter huge commercial trawlers in the waters. Sometimes, they threaten to kill us when we confront them. When we spread our nets, they ruin them.”

But Badjie’s plight and that of thousands of other artisan fishers could soon see a change for the better.“The problem of oversized fleets using destructive fishing methods is a global one and the results are alarming and indisputable” – Greenpeace

In an historic ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea – the first of its kind by the full tribunal – the body affirmed that “flag States” have a duty of due diligence to ensure that fishing vessels flying their flag comply with relevant laws and regulations concerning marine resources to enable the conservation and management of these resources.

Flag States, ruled the tribunal, must take necessary measures to ensure that these vessels are not engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing activities in the waters of member countries of West Africa’s Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SFRC). Further, they can be held liable for breach of this duty. The ruling specifies that the European Union has the same duty as a state.

West African waters are believed to have the highest levels of IUU fishing in the world, representing up to 37 percent of the region’s catch.

“This is a very welcome ruling that could be a real game changer,” World Wildlife Fund International Marine Programme Director John Tanzer was reported as saying. “No longer will we have to try to combat illegal fishing and the ransacking of coastal fisheries globally on a boat by boat basis.”

The SRFC covers the West African countries of Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

The need for an advisory opinion by the Tribunal emerged in 1993 when the SRFC reported an “over-exploitation of fisheries resources; and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing of an ever more alarming magnitude.” Such illegal catches were nearly equal to allowable ones, it said.

Further, “the lost income to national economies caused by IUU fishing in Wet Africa is on the order of 500 million dollars per year.”

The apparent theft of West Africa’s fish stocks has been denounced by various environmental groups including Greenpeace, which described “monster boats” trawling in African waters on a webpage titled ‘Fish Fairly’.

“For decades,” Greenpeace wrote, “the European Union and its member states have allowed their industrial fishing fleet to swell to an unsustainable size… In 2008, the European Commission estimated that parts of the E.U. fishing fleet were able to harvest fish much faster than stocks were able to regenerate.’’

“The problem of oversized fleets using destructive fishing methods is a global one and the results are alarming and indisputable.”

Unofficial sources told IPS that there are forty-seven industrial-sized fishing vessels currently in The Gambia’s waters, thirty-five of which are from foreign fleets.

Meanwhile, artisanal fishers, on whom the population depends for supply, say they are finding it hard to feed the market. Prices have risen phenomenally and shortages in the market are no longer a rarity.

“Our waters are overfished,” said Ousman Bojang, 80, a veteran Gambian fisher.

Bojang learnt the fishing trade from his father when he was young, but later switched gears to become a police officer.

After 20 years, he retired and returned to fishing. Building his first fishing boat in 1978, he became the president of the first-ever association of fishers in the country.

“Fishing improved my livelihood,” he told IPS. “While I was in the service, I could not build a hut for myself. Now, I have built a compound. I’ve sent my children to school and all of them have graduated.

“I transferred my skills to them and they’ve joined me at sea. I have 25 children; 10 boys and 15 girls. All the boys are into fishing. Even the girls, some know how to do hook and line and to repair net.”

Other hopeful trends for the artisanal fishers include the recognition by the Africa Progress Panel, headed by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, that illegal fishing is a priority that the continent must address.

Another is the endorsement by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations of guidelines which seek to improve conditions for small-scale fishers.

Nicole Franz, fishery planning analyst at FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture department in Rome, told IPS that the small-scale fisheries guidelines provide a framework change in small-scale fisheries. “It is an instrument that looks not only into traditional fisheries rights, such as fisheries management and user rights, but it also takes more integrated approach,” she said.

“It also looks into social conditions, decent employment conditions, climate change, disaster risks issues and a whole range of issues which go beyond what traditional fisheries institutions work with. Only if we have a human rights approach to small-scale fisheries, can we allow the sector to develop sustainably.”

Edited by Lisa Vives/Phil Harris    

Opposition supporters at a rally in the Gambia. Activists and local politicians say that ahead of the 2016 presidential elections there has been little tolerance for the opposition. Credit: Saikou Jammeh/IPS

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, Aug 28 2014 (IPS)

With the approach of the Gambia’s 2016 presidential elections, which will see President Yahya Jammeh seek re-election for a fifth, five-year tenure, more than a dozen opposition activists have been arrested, detained and prosecuted in the past eight months.

The leader of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Ousainou Darboe, told IPS, “the democratic space, instead of being expanded is constricted, restricted and shrinking.”

Just in the past eight months, 15 of Darboe’s party members have appeared before a court of law. Twelve members of the party’s youth wing were arrested in February for “an unlawful gathering” but where later acquitted by the court in March.

“The security forces have been scuttling our efforts by arresting my party supporters and I believe this is done with the full encouragement of the ruling party,” Darboe said.

Ebrima Solo Sandeng, the secretary general of youth wing of the UDP, was also acquitted in March on a charge of giving false information when obtaining a permit from the police to hold a social gathering for his party in Tujerang village, which lies some 40 km from Banjul. According to the state, Sandeng held a political rally instead of a social gathering.  Before his acquittal, Sanneh was originally sentenced in December 2013 to five years in jail after initially being found guilty of sedition.

Lasana Jobarteh, an audio visual expert attending the event, was not as lucky.  Jobarteh, 59, was charged with broadcasting without a license for providing live coverage of the UDP’s political gathering for online Gambian radio stations via skype. In July Jobarteh was found guilty and issued with a fine of 50,000 dalasis (about 1,200 dollars).

“I shocked by the judgment,” Darboe said of Jobarteh’s conviction.

“I don’t want to say more because we’ve filed an appeal. But I just have to repeat that I am thoroughly shocked. You don’t have to have any legal mind to know it’s not right. This is common sense.”

The case of Bai Mass Kah, from the opposition People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) party, is the most recent one.“My party will never boycott the elections. The atmosphere is not a good one but it will not make us abandon our responsibilities. We have to take on the ruling party.” -- Hamat Bah, leader of the opposition National Reconciliation Party

On Sept. 9 Kah will appear before a court in Banjul, the country’s capital, to face judgement on a charge of sedition. Sedition has a broad definition in the Gambia – it means saying anything that tarnishes the image of the country, the government or the president. Kah’s crime was telling a ruling party supporter not to paste a photo of Jammeh on his car.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to two years imprisonment or face a fine of between 50,000 dalasis (about 1,200 dollars) and 250,000 dalasis (about 6,300 dollars), or both.

“The election is not an event but a process and the stage we’re in is very crucial,” political analyst Bakary Touray told IPS.

“If this stage [the pre-election period] is ignored, an unfair election could be declared fair by even international election observers [who are only present to witness the elections themselves and not the run-up process] as we have seen it happen in many elections across Africa.”

However, Touray says the current oppressive political environment is not unfamiliar.

“What we have seen in recent months — the arrest and prosecution — is a tactic by the ruling regime to weaken the opposition. Technically, the election has begun.”

Hamat Bah, leader of the opposition National Reconciliation Party (NRP), told IPS that the current “political landscape is bad.”

“People are being arrested and detained beyond the 72-hour limit and the president is making utterances that violate the constitution. This is not a good situation for the country.”

Besides facing arrest and prosecution, the opposition claimed that they are being denied permits by the police to hold political rallies, which they are required to apply for according to the Public Order Act.

“We wanted to tour the country, meet the people and discuss with them our political agenda. Unfortunately, the Inspector General of Police has for the second time in May refused us a permit,” Bah said.

Bah said the reasons for refusing the permit “were not genuine.”

“In a letter dated Mar. 11, he [the Inspector General of Police] said there were programmes scheduled ahead of our programme, but he did not specify. In our second attempt, he said in a letter dated May 22, they were preoccupied with a women’s advancement forum, which was taking in Banjul, not in Upper River Region where we requested to go to for our rally. Absolutely, they [the reasons for refusal] were baseless.”

Darboe said that after the 2011 presidential elections, which Jammeh won in a landslide, there had been an unequivocal promise from the Independent Electoral Commission to ensure electoral reforms. However, the opposition overwhelmingly boycotted the parliamentary and local government elections in 2012 and 2013, respectively, after their demands for electoral reforms were unmet.

According to Darboe, if the playing field for multi-party elections is not levelled, his party may not participate in the upcoming presidential elections.

“We might as well call it quits. There’ll be no use in contesting an election that will not be fair. You don’t just want to go through the motions of electioneering when in fact [it is a] farce and mock election.”

Bah, the leader of NRP, however, holds a different view. When the opposition boycotted the parliamentary election, he contested. Even though his party managed to win only one seat in the parliamentary elections, and none in the local government election, Bah is undeterred.

“My party will never boycott the elections,” he said. “The atmosphere is not a good one but it will not make us abandon our responsibilities. We have to take on the ruling party.”

Despite their apparent division, the opposition believe that political reforms are needed in Gambia.

“We need a comprehensive electoral reform and the institution that has the moral courage to ensure that the electoral laws as reformed will be implemented,” Darboe said.

“You can reform electoral laws but if you have a rogue institution [implementing them], the usefulness of reform will be questionable. And we need men of integrity to be in charge.”

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Circumcisers in the Gambia publicly declaring that they have abandoned the practice of FGM. Credit: Saikou Jammeh/IPS

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, Jul 13 2014 (IPS)

Women’s rights activists in the Gambia are insisting that more than 30 years of campaigning to raise awareness should be sufficient to move the government to outlaw female genital mutilation (FMG).

The practice remains widespread in this tiny West African country of 1.8 million people, but rights activists believe that their campaign has now reached the tipping point.

Two years ago, GAMCOTRAP, an apolitical non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to the promotion and protection of women and girl children’s political, social, sexual, reproductive health and educational rights in The Gambia, and one of the groups behind the anti-FGM campaign, sponsored a draft bill which has been subjected to wide stakeholder consultations.

Several previous attempts to legislate against FGM have failed, with no fewer than three pro-women laws having had clauses on FGM removed from draft bills. But activists now appear determined to make the final push and hope that when introduced this time round, the bill will go through.“We’ve caused lots of suffering to our women ... if my grandparents had known what I know today, they would not have circumcised anyone. Ignorance was the problem” – former circumciser Babung Sidibeh

The time has now come for final action, says Amie Bensouda, legal consultant for the draft bill. “There can be no half measures. The law has to be clear. It’s proposed by the law that FGM in all its forms is prohibited. This discussion cannot go on forever. The government should do what is right.”

“The campaign has reached its climax,” Dr Isatou Touray, executive director of GAMCOTRAP, told IPS. “A lot of work has been done. I am hopeful of having a law because women are calling for it, men are calling for it. I know there are pockets of resistance but that’s always the case when it comes to women’s issues.”

“In 2010, we organised a workshop for the National Assembly,” she continued. “They made a declaration, pledging to support any bill that criminalises FGM. I am happy to report that, since 2007, more than 128 circumcisers and 900 communities have abandoned the practice. This trend will continue to grow.”

Seventy-eight percent of Gambian women undergo FGM as a ‘rite of passage’. However, after more than three decades of the anti-FGM campaign in Gambia, a wind of change is blowing, sweeping even conservative rural communities.

Sustained awareness-raising programmes have resulted in public declarations of abandonment of FGM by hundreds of circumcisers. Babung Sidibeh, custodian of the tradition in her native Janjanbureh, the provincial capital of Central River Region, 196 kilometres from Banjul, was one of them. The old woman assumed the role after the death of her parents, but she has since “dropped the knife”, as no longer practising FGM is known here.

Sidibeh did so after receiving training in reproductive health and women’s rights. “Soon after we circumcised our children in 2011,” she told IPS, “Gamcotrap invited me for training. I was exposed to the harm we’ve been doing to our fellow women. If I had known that before what I know today, I would never have circumcised anyone.”

With a tinge of remorse, she added: “We’ve caused lots of suffering to our women. That’s why I told you that if my grandparents had known what I know today, they would not have circumcised anyone. Ignorance was the problem.”

Mrs Camara-Touray, a senior public health worker at the country’s heath ministry confirmed to IPS that her ministry has since taken a more proactive role on FGM.

She explained: “The ministry has created an FGM complication register. We’ve also trained nurses on FGM. Until recently, when you asked most health workers about the complications that can arise with FMG, they would say it has no complications. That’s because they were not trained. Since 2011, we’ve changed our curriculum to include these complications. After we put the register in place, within three months, we’d go to a region and see that hundreds of complications due to FGM had been recorded.”

In March, Gamcotrap organised a regional religious dialogue that sought to de-link FGM from Islam. Touray said that the workshop was a prelude to the introduction of the proposed law in parliament.

“Islamic scholars were brought together from Mali, Guinea, Mauritania and Gambia,” she told IPS. “We had a constructive debate and it was overwhelmingly accepted that FGM is not an Islamic injunction, it’s a cultural practice. It was recommended that a specific law should be passed and a declaration was made to that effect.”

However, there is resistance in some quarters. An influential group of Islamic scholars, backed by the leadership of the Supreme Islamic Council, continue to maintain that FGM is a religious injunction.

With a large following and having the ears of the politicians, these clerics have in recent times also intensified their pro-FGM campaign.

“It will be a big mistake if they legislate against FGM,” Ebrima Jarjue, an executive member of the Supreme Islamic Council, told IPS.

“Our religion says we cut just small. We should be allowed to practise our religion. If some people are doing it and doing it bad, let them stop it. Let them go and learn how to do it. If circumcising the girl child when she’s young is causing problems, then let’s wait until she grows up. That’s what used to happen.”

Meanwhile, the Women’s Bureau, the implementing arm of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, is hesitant about legislating against FGM.

“As far FGM is concerned, the position of the Women’s Bureau is that there’s need for more sensitisation and dialogue to push the course forward,” Neneh Touray, information and communication officer of the Women’s Bureau, told IPS. She declined to comment on whether the bureau thought that the bill was premature.

Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of women’s rights NGO Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children says that increased women’s representation in the Gambia’s is important for development. Credit: Saikou Jammeh/IPS

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, Mar 30 2014 (IPS)

The countdown to the Gambia’s 2016 general elections has begun with a rare move to bring together female politicians from across the divided political spectrum to ensure increased female representation.

This week, local women’s rights NGO Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (Gamcotrap) launched a campaign calling for political reforms to ensure the effective participation of women in all positions of political leadership.

“We are now saying that we want to fetch our own water and drink with men from the same well,” Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of Gamcotrap, tells IPS. The NGO has received support for the campaign from the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. non-profit that supports freedom across the world.“We are now saying that we want to fetch our own water and drink with men from the same well.” -- Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of Gamcotrap

“What we’re doing has nothing to do with partisan politics,” says Touray. “It’s not about disempowering men. It’s about development, and it’s about gender politics.

“When we talk about gender politics, we’re talking about women from different political parties coming together to look at their issues and promote it, under one umbrella.”

The preliminary results of this tiny West African nation’s 2013 census show that women constitute more than 51 percent of the country’s almost 1.8 million people.

As of 2011, women represent 58 percent of national voters. Their numerical strength is not, however, reflected in the number of women in governance and leadership positions at both national and local level.

This is despite the fact that the Gambia has a female vice-president, Dr. Isatou Njie Saidy, who has held the post since 1997.

“Out of 53 National Assembly members, we have only four who are elected and one nominated female deputy. That’s nine percent,” Amie Sillah, a gender activist and politician, tells IPS.

“Also, out of 1,873 village heads, only five are women. There’s no female governor, no female district chief. So is that impressive?”

The structures within various political parties, at best, relegate women to being permanent deputies of male propagandists. Women mostly only hold leadership positions in the female wings of their political parties.

And the majority of politically-active women here spend their time campaigning for votes and financial donations for their male counterparts.

“In the selection committees of parties, even if a woman is made chair, as our proverb goes: ‘They [men] give you the head and take out the tongue’, so that the woman is not able to speak out. Men give you just a nominal power. In a nutshell, you propagate what they want you to,” Sillah says.

The Constitution guarantees women’s right to participate in politics and criminalises any form of gender-based discrimination.

Over the past four years, at least three pro-women laws have been passed: the Women’s Act of 2010, the Domestic Violence of Act, and the Sexual Offences Act, both of 2013.

Yet, women remain politically marginalised.

Activists say that because men dominate the political scene, the pro-women’s legislation has been watered down.

“Most of [women’s] issues have not been passed into law…and if passed, critical clauses are removed,” Touray says

Sillah explains: “They took out all the good things, all the crucial provisions in the Women’s Act dealing with marriage, inheritance … Also, they’ve refused to pass the provision on female genital mutilation. They took it out and this is about the reproductive health rights of women.”

Sillah called for an affirmative action quota system for the National Assembly that will allott at least 30 percent of seats to women.

“It’s time for women to be where the laws are made. So that when laws come that protect women’s rights, they can effectively engage to allow the bills to be passed.”

Haddy Nyang-Jagne is one of the four female members in the National Assembly from the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC). She thinks that the government has done a lot to ensure women’s participation in politics and that one of the reasons for the low number of women in parliament is the existing cultural barriers.

“The government has created the enabling environment, sensitised women. Now, is it stigmatisation? Women are afraid to come out because people speak ill of them.”

“Is it lack of funding? In APRC, money is given to candidates…Sometimes, it’s about religious and cultural barriers. Some people would tell you our religion of Islam does not accept women taking part in politics and we know that proposition is unfounded,” Haddy, who is serving her second term in the National Assembly, says.

However, women from the opposition say that the democratic space for vibrant multi-party politics has shrunk as arbitrary arrests and detention of opponents have become the norm.

Mariama B. Secka, the secretary-general in the opposition United Democratic Party’s female wing, explains that it is hard to be part of the opposition in the Gambia. The country has been a one-party dominant state since 1996 when army leader and now President, Yahya Jammeh, formed the APRC after he took power in a 1994 coup.

“I was invited to a forum by the women’s federation. When I started introducing myself as a member of opposition party, I was heckled. I was totally harassed. It’s not easy at all. We need a more level playing ground,” she tells IPS.

And the only people who can change this are the country’s majority female voters.

“We’ve observed that most of the educated women don’t even vote. We want to remain in our comfort zones,” says Touray. “And until the educated woman goes to the grassroots, we may not be able to achieve what we want.”

But Touray is optimistic and doesn’t rule out the possibility of a female presidential candidate for as early as the 2016 presidential elections.

“Of course yes! Why not! It’s possible,” she says. “The political landscape is for everybody. Women are saying that they have a right to be there and we’re going for elective positions rather than being nominated.”

Ben Ryan and Rachel Slater, tourists from the United Kingdom, pictured at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, a five-star hotel on the idyllic coast of Kololi, say that they have enjoyed their stay in the Gambia and will return. Courtesy: Saikou Jammeh

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL , Jun 26 2013 (IPS)

Mr. and Mrs. Gridley* are among a handful of tourists laying pool side and working on their tropical tan at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, a five-star hotel on the idyllic coast of Kololi in the Gambia.

The English couple previously travelled extensively in the Caribbean, India, and Thailand before discovering the Gambia, a small nation that calls itself the “Smiling Coast of Africa”.

“Then we decided that there is no point flying nine hours away to get what we can get here. So we keep coming here every year,” Mrs. Gridley tells IPS.

Over 180,000 tourists, mostly from Europe, visited the Gambia this year, including Ben Ryan and his girlfriend, Rachel Slater.

“There are not many countries I have the desire to return to for a second time, but the Gambia is most definitely one of them, and I plan to stay at the Kairaba once again,” Ryan, who is from the United Kingdom, tells IPS.

Ryan and Slater spent their time in this West African nation visiting national parks and immersing themselves fully in local culture. “We’ve always talked about coming to Africa, and the Gambia is one of the places that was affordable and offered the wide variety of activities we were looking for,” Slater tells IPS.

Tourism currently accounts for 14 percent of the Gambia’s GDP and employs over 100,000 of the country’s 1.7 million people, according to a February report issued by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics.

“Tourism, which was once a key driver of the economy, remains the country’s most significant foreign exchange earner. Agriculture accounts for approximately one third of GDP and over 70 percent of employment,” according to the World Bank.

When the military took power in 1994, the tourism industry saw sharp declines, as western countries issued warnings to their citizens to avoid visiting the Gambia due to the unstable situation. Reports suggested 65 percent of those working in the tourism industry lost their jobs.

But the Gambia has much to offer tourists, from tranquil and beautiful beaches, to the slow meandering River Gambia, and awe-inspiring crocodile pools.

In addition, as Mr. Gridley states, “the weather here is guaranteed to be top notch, it’s just a short flight away, and there is no time difference with the U.K.”

Benjamin Roberts, director general of the Gambia Tourism Board, admits that all tourist destinations across the world offer virtually the same services. But, as tourism expert Adama Bah states, each destination has its own unique traits.

“The Gambia is no different from an area in Spain that has sun, sand, and the sea. What you have to consider as a destination is what is your unique selling point? What do you have that others don’t? The openness of the people, and religious harmony, that’s what the Gambia has,” Bah tells IPS.

In a 2006 survey sponsored by the Gambian government and computed from feedback from tourists returning home, visitors here gave Gambian people a score of 93 percent for friendliness, even higher than that given to the food and accommodation.

Roberts says that this past year’s travel season, which ended in April, appears to have been successful.

“All indications are that this season was better than last season. In terms of occupancy rates, we have been as high as 95 percent, and occasionally up to 100 percent. Last year, we registered about 165,000 tourists, and this year we could hit 180,000 to 190,000,” he tells IPS.

Bah, however, cautions authorities against taking these figures for granted.

“Tourism is not just about numbers, it is about the amount of money tourists spend in the country,” he says.

“If tourists are coming and staying only in the hotels, we are not maximising the benefits of tourism then. The only way we can do this is when tourists get out of their hotels and come and spend money on the local people … that’s where the local economy is.”

Nonetheless, Minister of Tourism and Culture Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie told the media earlier this year that “the season is good, and the best is yet to come.”

This is also the view shared by Roberts. “The minister’s optimism is premised on the fact that we are focused on … increasing the contribution of tourism to GDP from the current 12 or 16 percent to 25 percent by 2020,” he says.

In fact, the national development blueprint, Vision 2020, states that the country’s long-term goal is to record 500,000 annual tourist arrivals by 2020. The immediate plan is to make the tourism season year-round.

“The Gambian tourist season traditionally is November to April. Now, for the first time in the country’s history, the 2013-2014 season will start in October, instead of November. Furthermore, instead of the season officially ending in April, it will end in May,” says Roberts, adding that the country is not ready for a year-round tourist season.

Bah says there needs to be a clear strategy on how to ensure the country’s infrastructure and services are able to cope with this increase.

“If you’re targeting 500,000 tourists then where is the plan to build the equivalent bed capacity to accommodate this number? What is the plan to expand the airport? Because, if we have 500,000 tourists arriving, the facilities at the airport are inadequate,” he says.

While tourism is on the rise, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), sex tourism has also been on the increase here. A UNICEF study on sexual abuse and exploitation of children in the Gambia in 2003 revealed the country has a high rate of paedophilia.

The Gambia is signatory to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. And, the 2005 Children’s Act and the Tourism Offences Act 2003 protect children from sexual exploitation. But, according to the UNICEF report, the industry is difficult to police, as many families do not even view this as exploitative child labour.

A high-ranking source from the Tourist Guide Association, who did not want to be named, tells IPS he has come across many instances where families sell their children to sex tourists. He says that when he or the association tried to intervene, parents of these children refused to let them.

“They feel we are taking their living away from them. It has to do with poverty – we have to deal with the parents as well,” he says.

He adds that local NGO Child Protection Alliance has organised several programmes where different stakeholders in the hotel industry are trained on the issues of child sex tourism and what to do when they come across it. “I know of hotels that frown upon tourists entering their premises with young children.”

Bah agrees that the root cause of the sex tourism industry here is poverty.

“But it is very difficult because we’re talking about poverty and unemployment here. We all know … it is well stated that using the military to deal with the issue is not going to solve the problems ultimately.”

*First names withheld.

Free Eritrea democracy march in San Francisco. The country is plagued by human rights abuses, and “torture, arbitrary detention, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression” and has been called a giant prison by activists. Credit: Steve Rhodes/CC By 2.0

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL , Jun 22 2013 (IPS)

In February 2013, 20-year-old Mohamed*, like hundreds of thousands of other Eritreans, fled the brutal dictatorship in that East African nation in search of a better life in neighbouring Sudan.

But for Mohamed and others like him, escaping into neighbouring countries has brought no end to their suffering. Many of them have become the victims of human traffickers and Mohamed’s family believes that this was his fate too.

According to Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) “World Report 2013”, Eritrea is plagued by human rights abuses, and “torture, arbitrary detention, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and religious freedom remain routine.” In addition, military conscription is compulsory and can last for an indefinite period of time.“For the last 21 years, Eritrea has been ruled by President Isaias Afwerki, who turned the country into a giant prison, and isolated it regionally and internationally.” -- Human rights activist and founder of Human Rights Concern Eritrea, Elsa Chyrum

The international NGO Freedom House, which conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights, stated in its “Freedom in the World 2012” report that Eritrea is one of the nine most repressive societies in the world. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported in 2011 that 220,000 of the country’s 5.4 million people have fled the persecution there.

Mohamed managed to cross the border safely. Once in Sudan, he phoned his mother and told her he had made it. A few days later, he phoned her again to say he had been kidnapped. His cousin, Eden*, believes that he was abducted by criminals who work in conjunction with Sudanese security officials.

“His mother was devastated,” Eden told IPS from Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia, during a recent visit to the West African nation.

“My cousin’s kidnappers were asking for a ransom of 30,000 dollars. His mother is poor, so she started asking people for donations,” she said.

Eden said the last time her family heard from Mohamed, he said he had been sold to the Bedouin people of Egypt.

“One day, my cousin phoned again and said: ‘Mum look, I’m disabled. No need to pay anything. I may not survive much longer.’” They have not heard from him since and fear that he is dead.

Human rights activist and founder of Human Rights Concern Eritrea, Elsa Chyrum, said in a speech in January at the Eritrean Community Center in Boston, United States that the kidnapping of refugees has become common practice.

“This is done when the unsuspecting refugees are handed over to the highest of bidders from the Rashaida tribe (an Arab ethnic group in Eritrea and northern Sudan). The Rashaida take their human chattel all the way to Sinai (a peninsula in Egypt) at gunpoint.

“In the Sinai they give them to the Bedouin Arabs, and the new arrivals are tortured to reveal a number of a family member, often in the diaspora, for their extortion business. The family member is told that his brother, sister, niece or cousin is in their hands, and unless they can pay a certain amount of money, they will be killed.”

She said that the kidnapped refugees are tortured, raped, and murdered – their bodies used to harvest organs.

Eden said: “Those who can afford it pay huge amounts of money to smugglers or high-ranking officials in exchange for safe passage across the border.”

“Sudan has failed to stop its military from continually extorting money from refugees and collaborating with the kidnappers, and causing insecurity around refugee camps. In Egypt, the state is reluctant to arrest the kidnappers.”

But for many, remaining in Eritrea is not an option.

“For the last 21 years, Eritrea has been ruled by President Isaias Afwerki, who turned the country into a giant prison, and isolated it regionally and internationally,” Chyrum told IPS.

“The Eritrean constitution, with its extensive protection of rights, has been ignored. The national election, which had been scheduled for 2001, has been indefinitely postponed, and the national assembly effectively nullified.”

A number of Eritreans have been jailed for opposing Afwerki’s policies.

Amongst the detainees are 20 prominent critics and journalists and 15 top government officials, who have been held incommunicado for a decade. Some are feared dead.

“These were not ordinary people,” said Chyrum. “They include two former foreign ministers, ambassadors, chiefs of staff, and army generals who have done so much for the country and fought alongside the current president. The only crime they committed was to ask the president to implement the constitution.”

Eritreans also suffer limitations and restrictions on their right to freedom of speech and movement. And there is little religious tolerance in the country.

“Only four religious sects are allowed in the country,” Chyrum said. They are Sunni Islam, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant.

“Can you imagine, in Eritrea, if you want a passport, your application has to be approved by a committee set up by the government?”

A UNHCR official who refused to be named told IPS that without the assistance of regional governments, the U.N. agency could not put a stop to the trafficking of Eritrean refugees.

“If people are being abducted, clearly we have to do more. But I do want to say that the UNHCR cannot do it without the governments of Sudan or Egypt. And so, we are talking to those governments. It is my strong belief that it is only the governments who are going to lead the way in this process,” she said.

But it may not happen soon enough.

“We’ve been talking since September 2012 about holding a meeting with the governments. We’re still talking,” the source said.

Sheila Keetharuth, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea, recognised the enormity of the task of preventing human rights violations in that country.

“I have to say that I have one of the most difficult mandates at the U.N. Human Rights Council,” she told IPS. “Up to now I cannot get access to the country, though right from the beginning, before I started talking to civil society, I knocked at the doors of Eritrean authorities. The door hasn’t opened up to now.”

*Names have been changed to protect identity.

Some 481,880 people in the Gambia are eligible to vote at 761 polling stations across the country on Apr. 4. Pictured here is Amie Manneh and her child who are from Bundung, 15 kilometers from the capital, Banjul. Credit: Saikou Jammeh/IPS

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL , Apr 2 2013 (IPS)

When Gambians go to the polls for the country’s local government elections on Thursday Apr. 4, they will have fewer candidates to choose from as six of the country’s seven opposition parties are boycotting the elections. But one opposition party says it will be fighting political repression here by participating in the elections.  

“Every time we engage in elections, there is an improvement, one or two (things change). Eventually, we will get there and we’ll engage them,” Hamat Bah, leader of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), this West African nation’s third-largest opposition party, told IPS.

The NRP will be the sole opposition party, along with a handful of independent candidates, contesting the elections with the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), which was founded by army leaders who staged the 1994 coup that brought President Yahya Jammeh to power.

“Let me tell you one thing: this regime will never give us free and fair elections if we don’t fight for it. So the only thing is to fight with them to make sure we get to what we want,” Bah said.

The Gambia has come under serious criticism for its lack of political freedom as Jammeh is currently serving a fourth five-year term as president.

The Economic Community of West African States regional bloc refused to send an observer mission to the Gambia for the November 2011 presidential elections, saying in a statement at the time that “the political environment for the said election is adjudged by the commission not to be conducive for the conduct of free, fair and transparent polls.”

The country’s March 2012 parliamentary elections were also boycotted by the same six opposition parties in protest over what they called an “unlevel playing field” for free and fair elections.

The NRP now occupies one of the 48 elective seats in parliament, independents hold four seats and the remaining 43 are held by the ruling APRC.

Bah, who was backed by three other opposition parties in the November 2011 presidential elections in which he placed third, explained that participating in the elections did not mean that he agreed with the current political environment.

“I support my colleagues 100 percent in their demands for the holding of free and fair elections and for an atmosphere conducive to multi-party politics. Our difference lies on the issue of participation and non-participation. My party doesn’t believe in boycotting elections. We believe that democracy is a process that has to be nurtured, that has to evolve,” he said.

According to Bah, election boycotts do not help Africa.

“For example, in Zimbabwe the Movement for Democratic Change- Tsvangirai (led by Morgan Tsvangirai) has suffered more than any other opposition party in Africa, but they’ve never relented (in participating). And you are aware, last month, the Zimbabwean people overwhelmingly adopted a new constitution. That came as a result of a struggle that continues to this day.”

However, the NRP has not been able to field any candidates for two key mayoral seats – one in the capital city of Banjul and the other in the Gambia’s business hub of Kanifing.

But three independent candidates will be contesting the mayoral seat in Banjul, and one independent candidate will compete for the seat in Kanifing. The ruling party currently holds both posts. In addition, of the 114 councillorship seats, the NRP will only be contesting 10 posts.

“We intended to put up as many candidates as possible but, unfortunately, apart from the financial issues, some candidates were intimidated,” Bah said. “So it was very difficult to get the number of people we wanted. It seems most people do not want to take on the regime, especially when it comes to elections.”

Political analyst Buba Touray agreed with Bah’s philosophy, and said that vibrant multi-party politics in the Gambia would remain unattainable until the opposition participated.

“The opposition is missing the point,” Touray told IPS. “Elections, such as local government and national assembly elections, are very crucial to the building and sustainment of a vibrant political party. By not participating in such elections, they are missing an opportunity to reach out to the grassroots and build (their parties) ahead of the next presidential elections.”

Touray was not alone in his opinion. One independent candidate, one of five of the country’s top opposition figures who defied their parties and contested the 2012 parliamentary elections as independents, accused opposition party leaders of being self-centred.

“When there is a presidential election, they never talk about boycotting,” he told IPS on the condition of anonymity. “When it’s time for parliamentary and local government elections, which are opportunities for us to make our voices heard, they say boycott. It’s unfair.”

The leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Ousainou Darboe, told IPS that such accusations were not fair.

He said that his party would not participate in this West African nation’s forthcoming elections because the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had refused to implement promised reforms.

“It is on account of our experience in the presidential elections that we make these demands. During the presidential election, the electoral commission gave us their word that our concerns would be a matter of the past. But it turned out (to be) worse. You cannot now tell us that the guarantees we are now given will hold water.

“My party did not decide not to participate in the election. Rather, we are forced not to participate. There is a difference between taking a decision not to participate and when you are put in a situation in which you are forced not to participate,” he said.

Darboe said that before the 2012 parliamentary elections, his party had raised some of its concerns about the electoral process with the IEC, to no avail.“For us, the holding of free and fair elections is not on the agenda of the IEC,” he said.

Besides allegations of the ruling party’s abuse of state resources, including the use of state security to intimidate voters, the opposition has said that the electoral commission’s chief, Alhaji Mustapha Carayol, has no legitimacy as he has “overstayed his tenure”. Carayol has served two seven-year terms and is set to serve another.

Carayol’s office, however, rejected such claims as baseless.

Meanwhile, the IEC has announced that 481,884 people in this nation of 1.4 million are eligible to vote at 761 polling stations across the country on Apr. 4.

Former Gambia Chief of Defence Staff Lieutenant General Lang Tombong Tamba is currently on death row. Courtesy: Saikou Jammeh

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, Dec 14 2012 (IPS)

The court of justice for the West African economic community is expected to hear a civil society case calling for the abolition of the death penalty in the Gambia this December, four months after the execution of nine prisoners shocked the world.

Civil Society Associations Gambia (CSAG), a consortium of pro-democracy movements, laid the case with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice, which has jurisdiction to rule on human rights breeches. The court is open to all persons in ECOWAS, of which the Gambia is a member.

The case is an attempt to save the lives of the country’s remaining 38 death row prisoners who include former defence and intelligence chiefs, former top army officers and a business tycoon. 

But human rights experts in the Gambia are concerned about the court’s ability to hold this tiny West African nation to any ruling it makes. While the court’s decision is legally binding to member states, the Gambia has openly ignored previous rulings.

“The kind of solidarity we are seeing in the sub-region is a cause for comfort,” Banka Manneh, chairman of the CSAG, told IPS. “The case was scheduled for Oct. 31, but the sitting ended up not taking place. But it is already put on the calendar (for December) and the proceedings should start soon.”

Prominent Gambian human rights lawyer Ousainou Darboe told IPS: “I believe that it’s now time for the government to take steps to abolish the death penalty and to retroactively amend the current law so that all those on death row have their sentences commuted to prison terms.”

The civil society coalition also asked the ECOWAS court to order the Gambian government to hand over the bodies of the nine executed prisoners to their families “so that they can give them a decent burial and organise religious ceremonies which are necessary in such circumstances and are in accordance with local customs.”

The activists also requested a total of one million dollars be paid in compensation to the families of those executed.

Amadou Bah, a family member of one of the executed prisoners, told IPS that his family had not been officially informed of the application filed on their behalf. But he said he was thrilled by it. “Everyone has been talking ever since the execution, but no one wants to take action. The activists who sued the government have done a good job and they will have our support and prayers.”

Forty-seven prisoners had been on death row in crowded Gambian prisons prior to the Aug. 23 executions. Until then no one had been executed for nearly 30 years. This prompted the global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, to classify the country as abolitionist in practice. But it was stripped of this status after the nine prisoners, eight men and one woman, were secretly executed.

President Yahya Jammeh’s administration justified its actions, saying that the execution was necessary to curb the rising crime rate. “And if I have to sign 10,000 death warrants to save the lives of 1.6 million Gambians, I will do it with pleasure,” Jammeh said following the executions.

Later, the Gambian government caved to mounting local and international pressure and declared a moratorium on the death penalty. But many refuse to take the country’s controversial president at his word.

Local newspapers report that the remaining 38 prisoners are living in constant fear of immediate execution.

The family members of those who remain on death row have been unable to access the prisons where their loved ones are held, and are not allowed to communicate with them. Amnesty International quoted the unnamed wife of one death row prisoner as saying: “We don’t know what’s happening – who is dead and who is alive. And we don’t know who will be next.”

Families of some of the remaining death row inmates are not convinced by Jammeh’s claim that executions will be halted. They are, however, somewhat relieved that the government is being challenged legally.

“When the president announced that he had stopped the executions, we were not convinced that he meant what he said. I was never convinced because, I’m afraid, he is not all that good at keeping promises,” a father of one death row inmate told IPS on condition of anonymity.

The 64-year-old man, whose son was convicted on charges of treason, was cautious in his hope that the sub-regional bloc would save his son’s life as the Gambia has a reputation for losing cases and not honouring the Abuja-based court’s decisions.

Over the past six years the court has handed down two judgments against the Gambian government – in the torture case of Musa Saidykhan and the unlawful detention case of Ebrima Manneh, both Gambian journalists.

The government had been found guilty of illegal detention and was ordered to release Manneh, who had been arrested by police in 2006 and was never seen again, and to pay 100,000 dollars in compensation to him. He has not reappeared, however, and there are suspicions that he is dead.

Saidykhan brought a lawsuit against the Gambian government to the court after he was arrested and tortured by Gambian security agents in 2006 and accused of involvement in an alleged coup attempt. He was awarded 200,000 dollars in damages, but Gambia has not paid him compensation.

However, the ECOWAS court seems to be running out of patience with countries that do not comply with its rulings.

“The non-implementation of the court’s decisions is a violation of member states’ obligation under the ECOWAS treaty,” Justice Awa Nana Daboya, the chairperson of the court, warned in July, calling for the sub-regional bloc to impose financial sanctions on non-complaint member states.

The bloc is facing increasing calls to take action against countries that disrespect its court. Darboe said it was time the Gambian government respected the court’s decisions.

“It is illegitimate for the Gambian government to accept to be bound by some decisions of ECOWAS and refuse to respect the decision of the court. Lately, I have been seeing a government-sponsored advert on the state broadcaster, advertising for VAT (value added tax) and relating it to an ECOWAS protocol. If we can implement VAT, why not respect and obey the court, which the Gambia has effectively participated in establishing?

“The next thing the ECOWAS heads of state should do is to take some punitive actions against states that decide to disregard the decision of the court. The court is not there for decoration, it is there for a purpose,” Darboe said.

CSAG chairman Banka Manneh said he hoped the Gambian government would honour a ruling against it.

“We hope that the government will comply this time around since this is a matter of life and death for so many. I use the word ‘hope’ since Jammeh has absolutely no respect for the rule of law and the Gambia’s international obligations,” he said.

The CSAG accused the country of being in violation of international human rights instruments, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Also known as the Banjul Charter, it was drafted here in 1979 and calls for, among other things, respect for the right to life. The charter, which established the Organisation of African Unity, was ratified by all member states, including the Gambia.