WANEP Gambia on 19 and 20 July 2017 held a multi-stakeholder consultative meeting towards consolidating efforts, rethinking, reconciliation and building strategies in The Gambia.
In her welcome remarks at the two-day meeting held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, Maria Dacosta, board chairperson of WANEP Gambia, said that bearing in mind what The Gambia went through in the recent past and the political impasse that almost brought the country to a complete standstill, a consultative meeting of that nature couldn’t have been organised at a better time.
She said various sectors and organizations are currently engaged in isolated initiatives geared towards reconciliation and peace building as a result of the impact of the recent political impasse.
As a means of complementing government’s efforts in building the new Gambia, she explained, the consultative meeting aimed at rethinking and restructuring the engagement and role of various actors including civil society, traditional and religious organization, the media, women groups, security agencies and other state institutions in the ongoing reconciliation and rebuilding process.
"We need to embark on a frank and critical analysis of the issues at hand, the gaps and possible factors that may impede the process, and go further to come up with realistic and achievable strategies that will enhance reconciliation and facilitate the rebuilding of a fully democratic new Gambia, where all citizens are equal with no room for favoritism, nepotism, tribalism, religious intolerance, etc,"
she said.
In his keynote address, Ousainou Thomasi, special adviser to the minister of Justice, said a country’s constitution contributes to peace and stability when it reflects the wishes and aspirations of its people.
"We the people of The Gambia have accomplished a great and historic task,"
he said. “We have had our say on how we should be governed.” He further stated that it is now generally known that the government in The Gambia “will establish a truth, reconciliation and reparations commission whose principal objectives will be to give the victims of abuses a voice by allowing them to share their stories; give perpetrators the opportunity to tell the truth about abuses in a manner that normal criminal proceedings will not permit; and to give appropriate compensation to the victims for loss or injury suffered as a result of the abuses”.
It is hoped, he noted, that the process would lead to a healing on the part of victims and ultimate reconciliation across a broad spectrum of Gambian society, who have been affected, either directly or indirectly by the events of the past 22 years.
"As a government, we have the responsibility to actively foster social cohesion and encourage national reconciliation,"
he said.
He also said that respect for the country’s constitution and the rule of law was non-existent, adding that the constitution was only one on paper and could be amended anytime at the whim of the executive.
"The justice ministry as the focal point for the implementation of the Transitional Justice Programme welcomes this very important initiatives by WANEP and its partners,"
he noted.
He further outlined the key objectives of the conference, saying they included assessing the current situation and identifying challenges affecting the peace, security and social cohesion in the country. The initiative, he said, did come at an appropriate ti
"when we are to launch nationwide consultations on TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission]".
Point E, Rue de Fatick x Boulevard de l'Est, Résidence Bity Lokho, 6éme étage B.P. 15 416 Dakar - Fann
+221 33 859 20 02info(at)fes-pscc.org
This site uses third-party website tracking technologies to provide and continually improve our services, and to display advertisements according to users' interests. I agree and may revoke or change my consent at any time with effect for the future.
These technologies are required to activate the core functionality of the website.
This is an self hosted web analytics platform.
Data Purposes
This list represents the purposes of the data collection and processing.
Technologies Used
Data Collected
This list represents all (personal) data that is collected by or through the use of this service.
Legal Basis
In the following the required legal basis for the processing of data is listed.
Retention Period
The retention period is the time span the collected data is saved for the processing purposes. The data needs to be deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for the stated processing purposes.
The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed for the processing purposes.
These technologies enable us to analyse the use of the website in order to measure and improve performance.
This is a video player service.
Processing Company
Google Ireland Limited
Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland
Location of Processing
European Union
Data Recipients
Data Protection Officer of Processing Company
Below you can find the email address of the data protection officer of the processing company.
https://support.google.com/policies/contact/general_privacy_form
Transfer to Third Countries
This service may forward the collected data to a different country. Please note that this service might transfer the data to a country without the required data protection standards. If the data is transferred to the USA, there is a risk that your data can be processed by US authorities, for control and surveillance measures, possibly without legal remedies. Below you can find a list of countries to which the data is being transferred. For more information regarding safeguards please refer to the website provider’s privacy policy or contact the website provider directly.
Worldwide
Click here to read the privacy policy of the data processor
https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Click here to opt out from this processor across all domains
https://safety.google/privacy/privacy-controls/
Click here to read the cookie policy of the data processor
https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en
Storage Information
Below you can see the longest potential duration for storage on a device, as set when using the cookie method of storage and if there are any other methods used.
This service uses different means of storing information on a user’s device as listed below.
This cookie stores your preferences and other information, in particular preferred language, how many search results you wish to be shown on your page, and whether or not you wish to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on.
This cookie measures your bandwidth to determine whether you get the new player interface or the old.
This cookie increments the views counter on the YouTube video.
This is set on pages with embedded YouTube video.
This is a service for displaying video content.
Vimeo LLC
555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, United States of America
United States of America
Privacy(at)vimeo.com
https://vimeo.com/privacy
https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy
This cookie is used in conjunction with a video player. If the visitor is interrupted while viewing video content, the cookie remembers where to start the video when the visitor reloads the video.
An indicator of if the visitor has ever logged in.
Registers a unique ID that is used by Vimeo.
Saves the user's preferences when playing embedded videos from Vimeo.
Set after a user's first upload.
This is an integrated map service.
Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin 4, Ireland
https://support.google.com/policies/troubleshooter/7575787?hl=en
United States of America,Singapore,Taiwan,Chile
http://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/