COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD BEGINS CONSIDERATION OF INITIAL REPORT OF THE GAMBIA

CRC
28th session
5 October 2001
Morning





The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning started its consideration of an initial report from the Gambia by hearing a delegation say that although the Government was committed to poverty reduction, external indebtedness and the burden of repayment continued to affect the country's ability to meet set targets, particularly in programmes which gave priority to children.

Introducing the report, Joseph Henry Joof, Attorney General and Secretary of State for Justice of the Gambia, said that there was widespread poverty in the country and 69 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line.

Mr. Joof said that the Gambia had deeply entrenched socio-cultural beliefs and practices, some of which were obstacles to the full realization of the rights of children. He also said that the inadequacy of the existing institutional capacity for programme development, management, monitoring and evaluation in the areas of child rights had hindered progress in areas critical to the well-being of children.

The Gambian report said that there was no standard definition of a child in the laws of the Gambia and that there was no consensus on the definition of a child to cover such issues as compulsory education, employment, marriage, enlistment in the armed forces, criminal responsibility, deprivation of liberty, imprisonment, consumption of alcohol, and medical counselling without parental consent.

Over the course of their consideration of the report, the Committee Experts asked, among other things, about the implementation of the principle of non-discrimination concerning street children, disabled children and children of refugees and minorities; if violence or child abuse and other ill-treatment was on the Government's agenda; why juveniles were subjected to capital punishment; and if the regime of adoption was conventional or based on Kafala, which was the Islamic form of adoption.


The delegation also included Alieu Ndow, Director of Central Statistics Department; Pap Sey, of the Department of State for Direction; Fanta Ceesay, of the Department of Social Welfare; and Rougie Thomasi, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Focal Point at the Gambia’s Attorney General's Chambers.

The Gambia is among the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and as such it must send periodic summaries of its performance designed to implement the provisions of the almost-universal treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m. it will finalize its consideration of the report of the Gambia.

Report of the Gambia

The initial report is contained in document CRC/C/3/Add.61. It says that the Gambia is one of the least developed countries, but that it has a clear vision and a commitment to progressively protect the rights of all its citizens, particularly its children, using the resources it has on hand and with the support of its development partners.

According to the report, the Gambia has one of the highest annual population growth rates -- 4.2 per cent -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The 1993 census affirms that 44 per cent of the population are under 15 years, 50.4 per cent under 18 years, and 3.2 per cent are 65 years and above.

The report says that early marriage is a widespread practice in the Gambia. It is one of the most important limiting factors for increasing the girl child's education and subsequent skill development, employment and income. Female genital mutilation is also widely practised in the Gambia. Although its social and health hazards are being continuously exposed, the practice is still widespread. The practice is based on misconceptions based on religion.

There is no standard definition of a child in the laws of the Gambia. Several domestic laws dealing with children have different age limits for children. There is no consensus on the definition of a child to cover such concerns as the end of the compulsory cycle of education, labour laws relating to employment, minimum age for marriage, minimum age of enlistment in the armed forces, minimum age for criminal responsibility, deprivation of liberty, imprisonment, consumption of alcohol, and medical counselling without parental consent.

Discrimination against the girl child in matters of inheritance or predominated share of property on death is a gender-based practice under the Muslim personal laws of the Gambia, the report says. There is strong discrimination against the girl child as compared to her male counterpart with respect to age of marriage. In addition, children born out of wedlock are definite targets of discrimination.

Further, the report notes that domestic servants are girls of school age or teenagers below 18 years. They lack security of tenure, suitable working conditions, and a basic minimum wage. Their low social status exposes them to abuse, violence, and inhuman and even cruel treatment. A minimum age for work would be desirable to protect these children from economic and physical exploitation and a hazardous working environment.

Harmful traditional practices such as early marriages, female circumcision and certain post-natal rituals tend to aggravate the risk of material and child morbidity and mortality, the reports says.


Introduction of the Gambia's Report

JOSEPH HENRY JOOF, Attorney General and Secretary of State for Justice of the Gambia, said that although the articles of the Convention had not been incorporated into domestic law, it was important to note that the 1997 Constitution made general provisions for the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Gambian citizens and residents. Specific reference had also been made to the rights of children. In line with the spirit of the Convention, there were plans to create a national commission on children's rights. That would be an independent government body that would address issues relating to children. A comprehensive children’s act was in the process of being drafted.

Mr. Joof said that the definition of the child was not uniform in the Gambia. However, the 1997 Constitution, which was the supreme law of the land, stated that the child was a person under the age of 18. The proposed children's act would settle the conflicting definitions. For the criminal code, a person below the age of 14 was a child; the children and young persons act defined a child as any person under 14 years; and the matrimonial causes act defined a child as anyone below 21 years. Several laws existed to protect the best interests of the child.

Mr. Joof continued to say that the Gambia had made significant strides in reducing the infant and under-five mortality rate. By 1993, infant deaths had been reduced by about half and in 1989 the infant mortality rate was estimated at 64 deaths per 1,000 live births. Over the past decades, the health sector had made considerable gains in improving access to health services. The primary health care programme had made health service accessible to many rural communities. However, the quality of the services was still a problem due to constraints such as unavailability of trained personnel, limited supplies and inadequate infrastructure at health centres.

A new programme was launched to increase access to education and to improve its quality and relevance, Mr. Joof said. In the health sector, the health, population and nutrition project was launched with a loan from the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) had been drafted and it would be finalized at the end of the current year. It was hoped that those policies would greatly improve the lot of children in the Gambia.

While the Government of the Gambia was aware of and accepted its responsibility and commitment as a signatory of the Convention, since 1990, there had been many constraints which had hampered the full realization of the rights of children and the implementation of the treaty in the Gambia, Mr. Joof said. The country was one of the poorest and smallest countries in the world. Despite that, it had one of the highest population growth rates in Africa.

Mr. Joof said that the Gambia had deeply entrenched socio-cultural beliefs and practices, some of which were obstacles to the full realization of the rights of the children. In recognition of that fact, the forthcoming UNICEF-Gambia programme would put emphasis on advocacy to change negative attitudes. In addition, the inadequacy of the existing institutional capacity for programme development, management, monitoring and evaluation in the areas of child rights had hindered progress in areas critical to the well-being of children.

The low socio-economic status of women in society resulted in disadvantages for children especially girls in the rural areas as well as poor urban areas, Mr. Joof said. Further, there was widespread poverty. About 69 per dent of the population and 55 per cent of households fell below the poverty line. Although the Government was committed to poverty reduction, external indebtedness and the burden of repayment continued to affect the country's ability to meet set targets, particularly in programmes which gave priority to children.


Discussion

The Committee members raised a number of questions within the framework of the general measures for the implementation of the Convention; and the definition of the child. The members asked the delegation, among other things, about how the Government was working on budgetary allocations; about the areas of contradiction between the Islamic law and the provisions of the Convention; about the function of the ombudsman; and if the report had been disseminated widely.

Responding to the questions, the members of the delegation said that the report had not been widely disseminated, however, there was an intention to do so together with the results of the discussion with the Committee.

The role of the future national commission for children's rights would mainly concern the monitoring of the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, the delegation said. Children would be included in the commission as members on equal footing with other members from civil society.

The office of the ombudsman was created mainly to receive complaints from civil servants and because of the lack of resources, it could not handle children's cases, the delegation said. It was not preferred that the ombudsman did combined tasks, and while the office was allowed to continue with its present function, the situation of children would be dealt with by the future national commission on children's rights.

Asked about the status of the Convention in the Gambia and vis-a-vis the existing values such as Shari'a and customary laws, the delegation said that personal law was governed by the Islamic Shari'a, which was widely implemented. In most cases, divorce, inheritance and marriage were handled by Shari'a law and it prevailed over any international treaty in those matters, including the Convention. A study was being carried out at the regional level to harmonize the customary law, the Shari'a and statutory law.

A number of non-governmental organizations were working on awareness increasing programmes to sensitize the population about the harms of early marriages, the delegation said. Traditional marriages involving girls between 12 and 14 years had continued despite the constitutional provisions regulating the age of marriage. The Government had not been able to completely eradicate early marriages which were based on popular practice entrenched into the people's culture.

During the last eleven years, the Government of the Gambia had been conducting capacity-building efforts in the field of education and had constructed and extended a number of schools, the delegation said. The number of students attending schools had been doubled. In addition, since 1994, when the present Government was installed, at least four major hospitals had been built, which had not been the case in the previous thirty years.

Asked if the Government was planning to implement a strategy against poverty reduction, the Gambian delegation said that with the cooperation of UNICEF, certain areas had been taken into consideration and projects had been implemented in food security.

There was a drop in the international trade tax because of reduction in trade, the delegation said. In the same manner, the national revenue coming from taxation had been reduced. For that reason, the Government had been engaged in ameliorating the taxation system with the help of international assistance based on bilateral relations.


The views of children were heard during their participation in the drafting of policies, such as the social welfare policy, the delegation said. They were also represented in the National Youth Council where they expressed their opinions in matters concerning them.

A new syllabus would be implemented soon in the country, the delegation said. For that purpose, a workshop for teachers had been organized on the provisions of the Convention, which would be part of the teaching programme in the new syllabus.

Primary education was compulsory for an uninterrupted nine years for children from 7 to 15 years, the delegation said.

The Gambia had a problem in coordinating its data with regard to children, the delegation said. Although the information was there in the different departments, there was no mechanism through which the data was re-routed to the right place.

In follow-up questions and within the context of the second cluster of the main topics of the discussion, which were general principles; civil rights and freedoms; and family environment and alternative care, Committee Experts asked the delegation to include in their data collection efforts the situation of marginalized population groups. They also asked, among other things, about the implementation of the principle of non-discrimination concerning street children, disabled children and children of refugees and minorities; if violence or child abuse and other ill-treatment was on the Government's agenda; why juveniles were subjected to capital punishment; and if the regime of adoption was conventional or based on Kafala, which was Islamic form of adoption.




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