New York, July 5, 2017: As a result of PGA's participation in a meeting hosted by the Chair of the UN Peace-Building Commission, the Permanent Representative of South Korea to the UN and PGA UN Committee Member Amb. Cho Tae-yul, on June 30, PGA's Secretary-General Dr. David Donat Cattin met today with the new Justice Minister and Attorney-General of The Gambia, Mr. Abubacarr M Tambedou, at the Gambian Permanent Mission to the UN.
The PGA's SG presented the full portfolio of PGA Campaigns and possible interventions to strengthen Gambia's transition to democracy, justice and the Rule of Law, in partnership with the new Parliament and in cooperation with the new Government.
Dr. Donat Cattin highlighted the PGA Declaration on the Situation in The Gambia, issued on International Human Rights Day and drafted by the Speaker of Senegal, Hon. Moustapha Niasse, Member of PGA and host of PGA's 38th Annual Forum and 9th Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the ICC & the Rule of Law, Dakar, 9-10 Dec. 2016, through which the global network of PGA urged the former President to peacefully and promptly relinquish power in the hands of the democratically elected new President. PGA had warmly congratulated the new President for his political objective to bring back The Gambia in the club of law-abiding nations of the Rome Statute of the ICC, which he promptly did in early 2017 (see https://www.pgaction.org/media/pdf/Declaration-de-Dakar-sur-la-situation-en-gambie.pdf and https://www.pgaction.org/news/cap-icc-ix.html).
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General welcomed PGA's programmatic attention to The Gambia and promised to introduce the work of PGA to the new Speaker of Parliament, who will soon receive a letter from the leadership of the West African Members of PGA, including the Senegalese Parliament.
Minister Tambedu promised to carefully look into PGA's agenda on de-criminalization, as a way towards modernization of The Gambia's Penal Code, and reaffirmed his personal position supporting abolition of the death penalty, while stressing that the current understanding within Cabinet is that there are other legislative priorities of the new Government, but a moratorium on any execution has been installed in line with the precautionary principle.
The PGA's SG and the Minister of Justice agreed to develop areas of collaboration between the Parliament and Government of the Gambia on key issues for the success of Gambia's transition and stabilization, such as the implementation of international frameworks to regulate the flow of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), with the ultimate goal to serve the fundamental rights and best interests of victims.
