The Bill, he said, will also lay a solid foundation for a democratic and prosperous future for The Gambia.
Minister Jallow who was speaking yesterday during a press conference held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre, said: “The Constitution Bill 2024 represents a renewed attempt to make an autochthonous constitution that can garner the necessary support in the National Assembly and be endorsed by the people of The Gambia.”
It could be recalled that the recently gazetted 2024 Draft Constitution by the government received criticism from Gambians within and outside the country with many describing it as a “Barrow Draft Constitution.”
Justice Minister stated that consultations preceding the draft constitution 2024 following the rejection of the Draft Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Review Commission in September 2020 (the 2020 Draft”), the government, through the Ministry of Justice and in partnership with International IDEA, facilitating a series of mediation sessions on the revival of a draft constitution for The Gambia.
He revealed that “since the 2020 draft had been struck out, the drafting team from the Ministry and IDEA have worked to adjust the different clauses of the draft Constitution on which action was agreed by stakeholders.”
Jallow informed journalists that the IDEA met with President Adama Barrow on 12 January 2021 to brief him on progress and shared thoughts about the next steps envisaged to ensure that the revised constitutional document successfully sails through parliament and is approved at a Referendum.
He said that IDEA and the Ministry engaged with media editors as well as the leadership of the Gambian civil society Transitional Justice Working Group (TJNW, the Gender Platform, and the Youth Forum).
According to the Justice Minister, during these engagements, disinformation regarding their review process, especially regarding financing, and initiatives launched and aimed at catalysing an upsurge of support for their work towards a new Constitution were clarified.
Those initiatives he noted included participatory national and community radio programmes involving listener phone-ins.
“Overall, significant progress has been made since the mediation began in December 2020. Supported by various international partners, the consultation process has gone through two phases, with the goal of reaching a consensus on key contentious issues identified in the CRC’s Draft.”
Jallow noted that the first phase of the mediation took place from December 2020 to March 2021, with the support of the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, which was facilitated by Goodluck E. Jonathan, former president of the Republic of Nigeria.
He added that this phase involved intense consultations with political party leaders, Civil Society Organisations, traditional rulers, and faith-based organisations.
Jallow noted that this culminated in a high-level Consultative Retreat for Political party leaders on the draft Constitution of The Gambia held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria from the 23rd to 25th February 2021, facilitated by H.E Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
He pointed out that the event aimed to secure party leadership commitment to the Constitutional process.
Convened at the instance of the Office of the Attorney General & Minister for Justice of The Gambia and International IDEA, Justice Minister Jallow said the retreat was attended by leaders of all but two political parties in The Gambia and an ECOWAS representative.
In preparation for this consultative retreat in Abuja, he stated that the revised draft of the Constitution had been circulated to the leaders of all political parties and civil society for their information, review, and any further input prior to gazetting.
He stated that the purpose of that Consultative Retreat was for political party leaders and the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to meet with H.E Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to assess the adjustments that have been made to the CRC Draft.
He noted that this also afforded an opportunity to H.E Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as well as ECOWAS leadership to encourage the party leaders to renew their commitment to seeing the Constitutional process to fruition.
“It served to facilitate a post-mediation mission to The Gambia for Jonathan to meet with all political party leaders and address members of the National Assembly,” he said and “by the end of this phase, a consensus was reached on twenty-one out of twenty-four issues identified, leading to an agreement to restart the process after the 2021 electoral cycle in The Gambia.”
