FALAS deputy country director participates in selection of legal luminaries for MIPAD award

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By MAMA A. TOURAY

The Deputy Country Director at Federation of African Law Students Association (FALAS), Tijan B. Bah, a final year law student at the University of the Gambia has been among persons who recently participated in the selection of two prominent Gambian legal luminaries and the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice for The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) award.

Tijan B Bah said MIPAD is a global civil society organization that seeks to recognize the efforts of the people of African descent as people of African descent contribute to the success of every community in this world but are barely recognize hence MIPAD.

He continued: “Earlier this year, the Federation of African Law Students Association (FALAS), which I am a member, secured a partnership with MIPAD. Subsequent to this partnership, I got the opportunity to be a member of the committee responsible for the selection of nominees under Law and Justice Category as the only Gambian.”

According to Tijan, since 2017, MIPAD celebrates the most influential 100 people of African Descent in their different walks of life.

He added that the website of the organization archived the celebration of Influential people like Barrack Obama, Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Samuel Eto’o, Droba and other very successful people of African Descent ranging from Politics and Governance, Media and Culture, Business and Entrepreneurship.

“This year, MIPAD introduced another category under nomination (Law and Justice Edition). This category seeks to recognize people of African Descent in the legal fraternity. These categories mainly focus on lawyers who are doing well in the field of human rights, Governance and other legal related issues, it is on this basis that I nominated Mr. Dawda A Jallow, Mr. Gaye Sowe and Mr. Essa Mbaye Faal,” he explained.

At the final stage, Mr. Dawda A. Jallow, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Gaye Sowe and Mr. Essa Mbaye Faal, all lawyers were successfully awarded in recognition of their achievement.

Highlighting the reason for the award Bah said: “The Law and Justice Edition are complimentary of the second pillar of the International Decade of People of African Descent. The United Nations General declared 2015 to 2024 an International Decade of people of African Descent with the theme; people of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development. So, Recognition, Justice and Development are the three fundamental pillars of the International Decade. So because of the key role that lawyers play in the area of justice, this year’s Most Influential People of African Decent introduced a Law and Justice edition.”

Dawda A. Jallow is the current Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Republic of The Gambia. Essa Mbaye Faal is a former lead council at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, defense counsel at International Criminal court, prosecutor at Darfur Investigation and Gaye Sowe also an international human rights lawyer at Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, IHRDA.