National Human Rights Commissioner Njundu Drammeh yesterday invoked the famous quote of William Tecumseh Sherman an American businessman and author, who said ”war is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers”, to inspire stakeholers to the Gambia’s election process attending a training organised by the NHRC.
In his case, and in tandem with the event’s objective, Drammeh said the country’s election is too serious a matter to leave to the Independent Electoral Commission IEC alone.
The training is designed to equip participants who come from the media, political parties, security forces, government institutions among others with knowledge on human rights-based approach to elections covering areas promoting participation and inclusion, equality, and nondiscrimination, accountability and transparency in The Gambia’s electoral process.
It is funded by the Japanese Government through the United Nations Development Programme.
According to Commissioner Drammeh, the goal is to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to respect, protect and promote human rights during elections.
“We shall do a complete diagnostics, or a post-mortem, and see what are the reasons why guiding principles of human rights relating to elections are not what they are supposed to be on paper and in practice,” Drammeh said, adding that the training will also tackle hate speech, election violence and conflict resolution.
He said every person whose voice matters and ought to matter was in the room for an honest conversation spread across two days at the Bakadaji Hotel.
Commissioner Drammeh further explained that elections are too important to be left to one institution.
He thanked UNDP and the Japanese Government for supporting the Commission, and urged participants to hold the Commission accountable for its mandate. The workshop progressed with thought provoking presentations from Commissioner Halimatou Dibba, Yusufa Bojang of the National Commission for Civic Education and human rights activist Madi Jobarteh.
