Annually countries all over the world mark December 10 as International Human Rights Day.
The day provides people the opportunity to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone, everywhere.
As highlighted in this and many other pages of this paper before, everyone has the right to be heard and to shape the decisions that affect him or her, and their community.
The fundamental human rights of all citizens are clearly enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We believe that despite some progress, in the fulfillment of respect and protection of the rights of all persons, there is still a big room for improvement, especially when there continue to exist some forms of violation of the rights of persons.
It is essential, therefore, to have strong civil society groups to push the agenda of respect for human rights forward.
Human rights violations do happen very often, and the violators most of the time go scot-free; something that we are very much concerned about.
As a nation, we must remain committed to the promotion and protection of the rights of people, and to work to ensure that they enjoy their full human rights given to them by God.
We must emphasize that people must be allowed to exercise their human rights such as freedom of expression and opinion, and peaceful assembly, movement and association.
As we mark this important day today, we salute the efforts of all those individuals and institutions promoting human rights.
In the same vein, we called on our law enforcement agencies be it the police, NIA, NDEA and Immigration to ensure the full protection and promotion of the human rights of all Gambians and non Gambian alike residing in this country.
