The
president of The Gambia Female Lawyers Association (GFLA) has acknowledged that
The Gambia has very good laws, but implementing these laws is usually a
problem. She made reference to the sexual violence act, attributing that lack
of structures is hindering the implementation of these laws.
Haddy
Dandeh Jabbie was speaking at a recent consultation on the Draft Women
Amendment Bill 2019 and Sexual Offences Amendment Bill 2019 before the National
Assembly Select Committee on Health, Women, Children, Disaster, Humanitarian
Relief and Refugees at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
She
thus called for the need to put in place structures to tackle and put an end to
this growing problem.
“The
Gambia has very good laws in Africa, but the implementation is the problem
because we didn’t have the structures to implement those laws. Many Gambians
know these laws but they are not implementing it, as there are many cases on
sexual violence in this country, but the victims are not reporting these
cases,” she added.
The
committee then gave a one-week time frame to Madam Jabbie for her to prepare a
recommendation report about the Draft Women Amendment Bill 2019 and Sexual
Offences Amendment Bill 2019.
The
bill seeks to amend the Sexual Offences Act by introducing the offence of
indecent assault. Victims of sexual violence are sometimes subject to sexual
attacks which do not meet the legal threshold of rape and there is no
alternative lesser offence in the Act.
Therefore,
the coming of this Bill would seek to introduce the offence of indecent assault
and a range of other sexual offences, which were not covered in the current act
in order to provide a better protection for victims of sexual violence.
