The Gambia Victims of Human Rights Violation has launched a report documenting human rights violations during the 22 years of ex-president Jammeh.
The 47-page report assessed the scale of human rights violations perpetrated under ex-Jammeh’s regime from 199 to 2017 and amplified victims’ calls for accountability and reparations in the future phases of the Transitional Justice process.
It looks at arbitrary arrest and detentions, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, executions, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, among others.
The report’s title, “No longer Silenced by fear,” also serves as an advocacy tool for the victims of rights violations to articulate their concerns and seek support and services for those in need of urgent remedy and advocacy for justice and reparation.
“Moreover, this project seeks to amplify voices of the victims of human rights violations who do not have the opportunity to testify before the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission. It complements the existing efforts of the TRRC in their attempt to give voice to the victims of human rights violations to ensure justice prevails for the hideous crime meted on them by the authoritarian regime of Yahya Jammeh,” said Sheriff Kijera, Chairman of the Victims Center.
Amnesty International supports the Victims’ Center. Marta Colomer, a Senior Campaigner Amnesty International said the Victims’ Center has a pivotal role to play in the new Gambia as a center representing victims who suffered the most horrendous crimes and violations under Jammeh and his allies.
“And nothing would stop them until everybody knows about those crimes and until there is effective justice for all the pain that they had suffered in silence for years. They showed determination and the imperative need for the Gambia society not to forget about their past. I think that our decision to support them with capacity building project was a very clever and fruitful one“.
The report presents 30 accounts of rights violations selected from the Victim’s Center database and provided by victims or relatives who were interviewed and told stories. The accounts were presented under the Coup attempts of 1994, 2006, 2012, and 2014, Witch Hunt, and opposition leaders’ responses between 14 and 16 April 2016.