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, ABA ROLI began its operations in The Gambia in 2021 and has since been implementing two projects: Promoting Rights and Justice (PRJ) Activity in The Gambia, a 5-year justice sector support project supported by USAID, and a complementary Rapid Response project entitled: Support to the Gambian Justice Sector to pursue Justice and Accountability, a six-month intervention supported by the U.S. State Department.
While the PRJ under objective 1 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.
Through Promoting Rights and Justice Activity, ABA ROLI aims to:
- Strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of justice
- Improve the quality of services and professionalism of personnel of the Gambian justice sector
- Help enhance the accountability of the justice sector
Through the Rapid Response Project, ABA ROLI aims to:
- Enhance technical capacity of the Ministry of Justice to fulfill its justice and accountability mandate in the immediate post-TRRC period.
- Build expertise of the Judiciary to effectively handle cases on international crimes.
- Strengthen meaningful engagement of law students and civil society in the national justice and accountability agenda in order to build sustainability and longer-term capacity in Gambia