"September 2015"--Table of contents page. "This report was researched and written by Felicity Thompson, Consultant Researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa division. It was edited by Corinne Dufka, Associate Director and Senior Researcher of the West Africa Division"-- Acknowledgments. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Annex: Human Rights Watch Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Banjul. Summary -- Recommendations -- UN and Regional Human Rights Mechanisms -- Ensuring Respect for Fundamental Rights and Accountability for Abuses -- Ending Mistreatment in Detention -- Respecting Basic Liberties and the Rule of Law -- To the Economic Community of West African States, African Union, European Union, United Nations, and the United States, the United Kingdom and Other Concerned Governments and International Donors -- To United Nations Human Rights Council Member States -- To the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) -- Methodology -- I. Background -- Progress on Education and Health -- Economic Downturn -- II. State Agents of Abuse -- III. Killings, Enforced Disappearances, and Arbitrary Arrests -- Extrajudicial Killings -- Enforced Disappearances -- Death Penalty -- Arbitrary Arrests -- IV. Torture and Ill-Treatment -- V. Persecution of LGBT People -- Unjust Laws -- Arrests and Discrimination -- Legal Protections -- VI. Attacks on Free Speech and the Media -- Prosecutions for "False Information" and "False News" -- VII. Restrictions on NGOs and Human Rights Defenders -- VIII. Lack of Redress for Abuses -- IX. International Efforts to End Human Rights Abuses in Gambia -- Foreign Donors and Other Governments -- UN and Regional Human Rights Mechanisms -- Acknowledgments -- Annex: Human Rights Watch Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Banjul.
Summary:
"Gambia's human rights record is among the worst in African. Since taking power over two decades ago, President Yaya Jammeh has ruthlessly suppressed dissent, shutdown virtually all independent media, and has routinely cracked down on journalists, opposition members, rights activitists, student leaders, religious leaders, relatives of alleged coup plotters, and civil servants. Since 2014 when the Jammeh administration introduced anti-gay legislation which imposes a life sentence for a series of new 'aggravated homosexuality' offenses, state security forces have targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with a wave of arrests and dententions. State of Fear, based on two research trips to Senegal and Gambia and more than 60 interviews, including with victims, witnesses and perpetrators of abuses, documents numerous violations allegedly perpetrated by Gambia's security forces, intelligence agents and a paramilitary group. These include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Many of these violations appear to be used by the authorities to instill fear in the population, which, together with a judicial system lacking independence, prevents victims and family members from seeking justice. The government has systematically failed to protect its own citizens and neglected to hold accountable those responsible for serious abuses. Human Rights Watch calls on the government of Gambia to urgently investigate and prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses, disarm and disband paramilitary groups, and ensure security forces respect the due process rights of all individuals. The government should also implement key recommendations from both the United Nations Human Rights Council's 20th Universal Periodic Review of Gambia and the 2015 reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial executions"--Page [4] of cover.
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