Gambia’s Freedom Day Is A Shameful Travesty-Amnesty Int.

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weekend2n-1-webAmnesty International, a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights, has stated that the naming of Gambia’s national holiday which falls on July 22 every year as a Freedom Day is a shameful travesty.

According to Amnesty International, instead of securing the freedom and human rights of the people of the Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh’s government has continued to crackdown on political freedom and commits widespread human rights violations with “total impunity.”

The Director of Amnesty International, Lawrence Amesu who expressed the views of the organization on the situation in the Gambia at a press conference to marl the Gambia day of Action, noted that Freedom has remained an illusion for most Gambians, including journalists and human rights’ activists whose lives are in total danger and fear of arrest, torture, unfair trials, rape, disappearances and extra-judicial executions.

Mr Amesu indicated that, torture is used routinely in Gambia to coerce suspects to confess to crimes and to punish detainees, adding that one Musa Saidykhan was arrested and detained without trial in 2006 under serious torture until in December 2010, the ECOWAS Community Court in Nigeria declared his treatment to be unlawful.

According to him, Amnesty International will continue to highlight the grave human rights violations in The Gambia for all peace lovers to take immediate action, adding that, “For us at Amnesty International, we will continue to highlight and bring the attention of the world to the atrocities and human right violations going on in The Gambia until President Yahya Jammeh and his government respect and protect the rights of every individual in that country.”

He also averred that since the ascending onto the Presidency, the Gambian judicial system has been weakened due to the recurrent interferences by the Executive and an increasingly repressive legislation that is aimed at muzzling dissent.

Mr Amenu said, The Gambia is coming up for review under the Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2014, and that all governments must seize the opportunity to bring pressure to bear on the President and government of The Gambia to improve their human rights records and respect and protect rights of their citizens.

Amnesty International appealed to the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, to use his current position as the Chairman of ECOWAS to urge President Yahya Jammeh to respect and protect rights of people in The Gambia.

 

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