The Gambia has been undergoing a democratic transition following years of authoritarian rule that ended in 2016 with the election of President Adama Barrow. To support this transition, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) began its operations in The Gambia in 2021 and has since been implementing three projects: Promoting Rights and Justice (PRJ) Activity in The Gambia, a five-year justice sector support project supported by the United States Agency for International Development; a complementary Rapid Response project entitled: Support to the Gambian Justice Sector to pursue Justice and Accountability, a rapid response intervention supported by the U.S. Department of State that concluded in 2022; and Countering Trafficking in The Gambia, a twenty-month counter-trafficking in persons (TIP) project supported by the U.S. Department of State.
While the PRJ under objective one aims to improve institutional capabilities within the justice sector with a major focus on the Judiciary; the Rapid Response project seeks to equip the Ministry of Justice to rapidly fill the gaps by providing specialized technical expertise to the institution to fulfill its justice and accountability mandate, and to build capacity of judicial officers in the area of international criminal justice, as well as to ensure that the requisite resources are available for them to take on this key aspect of their mandate to deliver justice to the people of The Gambia.