“For The Health Of Women, For The Health Of The World: No More Violence”
Friday 23rd December 2005

By GAMCOTRAP

Another 16 days of Activism in The Gambia is being celebrated. Activists all over the world are strategizing in different ways to mark the days. This year’s theme is “FOR THE HEALTH OF WOMEN, FOR THE HEALTH OF THE WORLD: NO MORE VIOLENCE”As we celebrate this year, it would be important to reflect on the events of the past year.

Last year the women’s movement in The Gambia made a very big breakthrough on advocacy around the African Protocol with the support of Action-Aid The Gambia. Several awareness creations activities were undertaken by all women’s rights organisations and other rights based groups around gender based violence in many of our communities throughout The Gambia.

Last year, saw the coalition of women’s rights NGOs and CBOs marching to present the African Protocol on Women’s Rights to the National Assembly. Over three hundred women including men marched to submit the instrument. It was envisaged that with the passing of the bill women would somehow gain some form of formal equality. The effects of these have resulted to passing the Bill with some reservations on articles which are supposed to protect, prevent and promote women’s rights and dignity.These articles address violence against women in all its ramifications. These reservations are centred on issues strategically affecting women’s sexuality and economic independence which are inextricably link to liberation of women. Liberation that women themselves; should take responsibility to free themselves from violence. To reach substantive equality the enabling environment must be in place to make it effective. This is so far elusive.

The social mobilisation process over the women’s protocol has resulted to GAMCOTRAP taking the agenda further with the National Assembly Members (NAMS) to respond to the issues they raised regarding the areas of contestation. The NAMS raised that they were not fully aware of the contents of the Women’s Bill and the awareness created around it during the 16 days of activism was not sufficient enough to pass it without reservations. Most used the religious pretext to defend their stance on the reservations as well as on FGM. They therefore requested that we continue the seminars, awareness creation and sensitation to address these gaps. Critical targets mentioned were the doctors, particularly Muslim doctors, religious leaders, (Imams) and the Supreme Islamic Council. In response to these issues raised by the NAMS, GAMCOTRAP was able to engage these sectors in a series of training programmes with the support of Save the Children-Sweden.

Indeed, working with the NAMS was very important entry point because they are legislators and their support is very crucial if the bill is going to be passed. They are also very crucial to the debate around the debate around the protocol and on the UN Convention Rights of the Child (CRC). When we started the project, the right based approach was adopted during the training process. This methodology was introduced by Save The Children with a holistic and very participatory perspective which proved to be very effective. It was obvious that the NAM’s were really ignorant of most of the Laws, The Conventions and other Human Rights Instruments that should be their tool for deliberations when it comes to fundamental human rights issues. Most claimed that they have never seen the documents. Therefore, it was not their fault to make such decisions that are inimical to the advancement of women, because, most claimed that they did not know the provisions. In the face of the law ignorance of the law is no excuse. It therefore implies that people who are going to be responsible for making laws of the country should be competent to do so. It also raises the need to have a proper induction for the legislature. There are many institutions that can be of great use in developing a curriculum that responds to the role of the NAMS as law makers.

GAMCOTRAP worked closely with various organisations and competent bodies and individuals to respond to the call made by the NAMS. These included people from the Child protection Alliance (CPA), Institute for Human Rights and Development (IHRD), UNICEF, Lecturers, from the University of Gambia and Management Development Institute (MDI), Muslim theologises and Shariah experts and health experts who treated different modules using the rights based approach.

NAMS were allowed to raise critical issues to clear their doubts and also to learn more about the different issues to improve their capacity to make informed choices based on the information available to them. As a result, a communiqué came out of the training workshops with the NAMS.

The process was very open and educative for all the target groups who have been trained and as far as the protocol is concern some progress have been achieved in understanding the content. Similarly the Women Councillors as well as youth groups and the physically challenged have been trained and awareness created regarding the protocol. The Women’s Machinery/Bureau effectively engaged the Female Councillors who took the responsibility to educate the NAMS and other critical actors.

There still needs to be more of this to cover broader grounds. However, the biggest challenge we are facing is the ‘subtle patriarchal resistance’ and ‘Institutional resistance’ from various quarters. This resistance is blamed on religion and peoples culture rather than facing the reality of change which is taking place every where regarding gender equality. There is a lot of misinformation pedalled that the women want to defy the divine injunctions and are calling for the impossible and misinterpreting them.

This is not the case. It is obvious that there is gross ignorance and resistance to change. There is no attempt to force anybody to give women their rights, but there is an attempt to respond to the needs expressed by target groups regarding knowledge of the protocol and other human rights instrument.

The biggest problematic area is the clear manifestation of the need to for NAMS to engage themselves intellectually and build their capacity on issues that are of concern to the electorates, in this context the female and youth electorates. This is a concern not only for advocates of Women and Children’s rights but should be a great concern for The Gambia’s future development. This is a body that is supposed to direct the wheel of development and engage into strategic thinking to move the country towards achieving positive and strategic development outcomes for The Gambia. The engagement with the NAMS and the process which has been adopted should not have left an iota of doubts regarding the issues at stake for the protocol on Women’s Rights. A lot of money is already invested and other opportunities should be directed at the women, men and youth at community level.

To Be Continued