Promoting Rights and Justice
In 2021, ABAROLI kicked off a five-year USAID-funded project to support The Gambia as it takes steps to consolidate a democratic and accountable system of governance. The project, entitled “Promoting Rights and Justice in The Gambia” provides technical support, expertise, and advice to the Gambian justice sector so that it can serve the public by providing quality justice services, which are critical to enforcing legal rights. In partnership with Freedom House, this project will also support and empower civil society organizations and the media so that they can fulfill their role of keeping government accountable to the people, advocating for citizens’ rights, and promoting legal reforms that pave the way for a vibrant democratic culture. The Justice System of The Gambia has a key role to play in enabling the state to ensure accountability and adopt measures to prevent the recurrence of the abuse of power by government actors. The project will have an emphasis on the rights of women, children and other vulnerable populations’, ensuring that justice services and advocacy initiatives led by civil society include their perspective and specific needs.
Supporting the Gambian Justice Sector to pursue Justice & Accountability
In late 2021, ABAROLI launched a DRL-supported rapid response project to provide direct technical assistance to the Ministry of Justice in the Gambia to equip it with skills and capacity to take forward its justice and accountability mandate for Jammeh-era crimes. The rapid response includes the provision of national and regional experts on prosecutions to advise Government, the organization of a judicial colloquium on international justice, support to develop the post-TRRC white paper to advise Government on its obligations, capacity building in the area of international criminal law for MOJ staff and technical assistance to develop a Victims’ Bill to handle reparations for victims of violations. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL).