Gambia’s human rights commission calls on government to abolish death penalty

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By BABOUCARR CEESAY

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of The Gambia has called on the government to abolish death penalty.

The chairperson of the NHRC, Emanuel Daniel Joof pronouncing the recommendations made in commission’s State of Human Rights Report for 2021 said the government should enact legislation to repeal the death penalty from the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code.

Speaking at a press conference at the NHRC secretariat in in Kololi, Mr. Joof said that the enactment should be in line with the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which The Gambia has ratified.

He cited the case of The State v Yankuba Touray HC/365/19/CR/067/AO; M. K Darboe, quoting an article published by All Africa captioned: ‘Yankuba Touray sentenced to death in Gambia.’

“For instance, on 14 July 2021, Yankuba Touray, a former Minister of Local Government in the early days of Yahya Jammeh’s rule was sentenced to death by the High Court in Banjul for the murder of Ousman Koro Ceesay, who was one-time Finance Minister.”

He also intimated that the state should commute the death sentences imposed on all inmates of life imprisonment.

The head of the human rights commission want the state to include in the next Periodic report to the Human Rights Committee information on the measures adopted by the State to give effect to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Joof emphasised that the state should also expedite the enactment of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Bills that are currently before the National Assembly.

“Section 18 of the 1997 Constitution guarantees the right to life which includes the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of life except in the lawful execution of a death sentence imposed by a court of law,” he cited.

He recalled that in 2017, at the 53rd independence anniversary, President Adama Barrow declared a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, which is still being observed.

He indicated that The Gambia ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aimed at the abolition of the death penalty in 2018.

He said in the 2019 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), The Gambia accepted the recommendation to abolish the death penalty.

However, the death penalty remains in the statute books of The Gambia and continues to be passed in judgments where persons are convicted of offences punishable by the death penalty.

“In this case, the Court held that section 188 of the Criminal Code which provides that a person convicted of murder shall be sentenced to death still stands as it has not been amended or repealed, and that the Court does not have the discretion to hand a different sentence. The Court adjudged that the sentence shall be executed by hanging,” he remarked.

In a similar judgment, he mentioned that on 29 July 2021, one Saidou Cham was also convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court in Basse, explaining that in both cases, the executions or death sentences have not yet been carried out and the convicts are behind bars as death row inmates pending further appeals.

He highlighted that the phenomenon of ‘death row’ of convicts has been criticised for being degrading and inhumane and on that basis, the imposition of the death penalty is contrary to the human right to dignity.

“Under section 18(3) of The 1997 Constitution, ‘The National Assembly shall within ten years from the date of the coming into force of this Constitution review the desirability or otherwise of the total abolition of the death penalty in The Gambia.’ This timeline has elapsed but provision has not been reviewed as the state continues to show reluctance to abolish the death penalty,” said Emmanuel.