By Omar Bah
The Gambia has provided a detailed explanation of its implementation of the recommendations of the truth commission, including victims reparations to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances during a recent review of the country’s report.
The committee commended the country for its 2024 Reparations Act, which established a Victims Fund and Reparations Commission but raised concerns about the implementation of recommendations from the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC), including the timeline for victim compensation and prosecutions of perpetrators of enforced disappearances under former President Yahya Jammeh’s regime.
Specifically, the UN Committee raised questions about provisions of the Reparations Act, whether reparations can apply to future cases, and the government’s plan to implement TRRC recommendations within five years, including prosecutions through a Special Court and Special Prosecutor’s Office.
The committee also discussed challenges in implementing TRRC recommendations due to limited financial resources, with some reforms still pending.
It added that real cases of enforced disappearances had taken place in the country, involving the Junglers from the former regime, and it was likely they would be prosecuted.
“The victims were known and were still dealing with their suffering. Would those victims have to wait until the cases were prosecuted and the perpetrators convicted? It was likely the reparations would not be paid by the Junglers but rather by the State. Should victims wait until the completion of the trials for compensation or reparations?” the committee argued.
Responding to the committee’s concerns, Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow, who led the Gambian delegation, clarified that victims do not need to wait for prosecutions to access compensation.
“The programme for the recommendations of the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission was ambitious, and the State planned to implement these within five years.”
Minister Jallow said apart from the few cases prosecuted, including those of the nine intelligence officers, the government had decided to do away with the piecemeal approach, until the Special Prosecutor was appointed and the Special Court was ready.
“The advertisement for the recruitment of the Special Prosecutor would soon be launched. All materials from the TRRC would then be handed over to the Prosecutor, and they would decide on future prosecutions, including the former president. But victims did not have to wait for perpetrators to be prosecuted to receive reparations,” he said, adding that victims had nothing to prove.
“The State understood the process of justice was a different ballgame from recognising someone’s victimhood. There was a set of criteria to determine who was a victim, and those who fit this criterion were entitled to everything a victim was entitled to.”
AG Jallow said victims were defined as those who suffered or their relatives.
“Out of around 1,009 victims, 108 received partial financial reparations of around 1,000 dollars. There were more than 700 payments of over 50,000 dollars.” He said the Reparations Commission would take over this process and develop a best practice standard for a compensation and reparations procedure.
“They would create a new victims database and allow victims who had yet to receive compensation to register and appear before the Commission,” he added.
