At a defining moment in its democratic rebirth, The Gambia steps confidently onto the global stage—not as a nation burdened by its past, but as a beacon of resilience, reform, and unwavering political will. Under the visionary leadership of President Adama Barrow, the country’s transition from the shadows of former ruler to a thriving democratic order stands today as a compelling testament to what determined governance and international partnership can achieve.
This address to the is not merely a diplomatic engagement—it is a powerful declaration of progress, accountability, and national resolve. It boldly affirms The Gambia’s commitment to justice, reconciliation, and sustainable peace, while calling on the world to recognize and reinforce a success story that continues to inspire beyond its borders.
On behalf of His Excellency President Adama Barrow, the Government of The Gambia extends its sincere gratitude to all members of the Peacebuilding Commission for your continued political attention and solidarity with The Gambia's peacebuilding journey.
The Peacebuilding Commission has been, and remains, an indispensable partner, providing political accompaniment, mobilizing resources, and promoting coherence across the UN system in support of our nationally owned process.
Your sustained engagement with us in The Gambia sends an important signal of international solidarity with not only member states, but equally, victims and survivors of gross human rights violations, and civil society, all over the world.
Nine years have passed since the end of Former President Yahya Jammeh's 22-year authoritarian rule in The Gambia. In that time, we have been on a remarkable democratic transition. We have witnessed two cycles of peaceful presidential, legislative and local government elections, built new institutions, enacted landmark legislation, and demonstrated that transitional justice can serve as a strong, and genuine foundation for sustainable peace.
A close and natural partnership has emerged between the Government of The Gambia, our UN Country Team and the Peacebuilding and Peace Support Office (PBPSO) since the onset of our transition in 2017.
In 2025, this culminated in the selection of The Gambia as the first member state to undergo the Peacebuilding Impact Spotlight exercise through the Peacebuilding Impact Hub.
For almost 12 months, we have undertaken a thorough and participatory research initiative into what transitional justice has achieved and where it still needs to deliver for the people of The Gambia.
It has been an intense exercise, but equally an exhilarating and motivating year full of reflections, discussions and consultations.
As Minister of Justice and policy leader on transitional justice in The Gambia, today is an important opportunity to reflect honestly on what has been achieved, what remains, and where international support is most urgently needed for The Gambia.
Following the conclusion of the research component of the Spotlight exercise, I am grateful for this opportunity to present to you too, Your Excellencies, an outline of a national strategy for transitional justice.
HIGHLIGHTING KEY ACHIEVEMENTS: WHAT WE HAVE DELIVERED
Your Excellencies,
The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, established in December 2017 by the Government of The Gambia, created an unprecedented national space for victims, survivors, and perpetrators to speak publicly for the first time about gross human rights violations committed on our country between July 1994 and January 2017. The testimonies and stories broadcasted over live television for almost 3 years gripped our nation. These were difficult times, but necessary. By making truth-seeking a national conversation, this Commission, the TRRC, dismantled denialism and placed The Gambia in a unique historical position to mend our social fabric and contract between people and Government, whilst reaffirming human dignity as the foundation for sustainable peace.
Following the submission of its Report and recommendations, The Government of The Gambia has consistently demonstrated the highest level of will to drive the implementation of the TRRC’s recommendations to their logical conclusion.
We have accepted to implement 263 of the 265 recommendations made by the Commission, even publishing an Implementation Plan on how this will be achieved: over a 5-year period (January 2023 to December 2027), involving 304 activities, 59 national institutions and a cost estimate of 150 million USD.
Your Excellencies,
One needs not look much further than The Gambia for powerful demonstration of sustained political will almost a decade into our democratic transition. Our processes have always been driven by our people, victims and survivors foremost, and responded to by the Government and our National Assembly. Since 2017, The Gambia has introduced robust legislative and institutional frameworks across all pillars of transitional justice:
On the reparations track: The Victims Reparations Act, enacted in 2023, establishes both the Victims Reparations Commission and the Victims Reparations Fund, and essentially takes over from the TRRC’s interim mandate to administer reparations. In 2025 and 2026, the Government of The Gambia allocated 20 million GMD in each year for the Fund, which we are proud to see being administered by the Commission in accordance with its compensation policy. The administration of reparations for victims, survivors and communities of gross human rights violation in The Gambia, is a critical component and milestone of our transitional justice process, one His Excellency, President Adama Barrow often describes as a “super priority.”
On the accountability track: The National Assembly passed the Ban from Public Office (TRRC) Act (November 2023), the Special Accountability Mechanism Act (April 2024), the Special Prosecutor's Office Act (April 2024), and in partnership with ECOWAS, a hybrid tribunal, the Special Tribunal for The Gambia was also created (December 2024). We are proud to present to the world under this framework, a unique post-conflict, justice and criminal accountability mechanism that activates pathways for both domestic and international prosecutions, with a strong focus on judicial expediency, victim’s participation, and witness protection, whilst strengthening national justice and security sector institutions.
On guarantees of non-recurrence: The National Human Rights Commission is fully operational as an “A status,” independent national human rights institution. In more recent times, a National Strategy on Memorialization, and a National Programme on Archiving have also been developed through a consultative approach, and soon to be reviewed by Cabinet.
All of these formal mechanisms have also been complemented by consistent community dialogues amongst traditional, religious, women and youth-led networks. The Spotlight exercise, and its final Report confirms that this “people centered,” complementarity approach to legislative and institutional building is essential to sustaining peace.
REMAINING CHALLENGES: AN HONEST ASSESSMENT
The Government of The Gambia is committed to transparency. The Spotlight research confirms what we acknowledge: public confidence declines when implementation slows or is not clearly communicated.
According to the National Human Rights Commission, mandated to monitor and report on the implementation of the TRRC recommendations, the Government of The Gambia has 3 years into the implementation phase, fully implemented 48 out of 263 recommendations, commenced implementation of another 133 recommendations, and yet to commence implementing 92 recommendations.
We are committed to accelerating this pace and improving communication with victims, their communities, and indeed, all Gambians. This is not a process we are prepared to allow to stall.
However, a daunting reality must be confronted by the Government, and all supporters of our process.
The cost estimates to implement the recommendations of the TRRC is approximately 150 million USD, of which significant portions remain unfunded.
To give this Peacebuilding Commission a concrete sense of what is at stake: the operationalization of the hybrid Special Tribunal alone is estimated to require approximately 60 million USD over five years, or roughly 12 million USD per year. Investigations, and domestic prosecutions through the Special Prosecutor’s Office and the Special Criminal Division of our High Court are estimated to require approximately 2.5 million USD per year. The Victims Reparations Commission requires sustained deposits into the Reparations Fund; the Government has to date, allocated 40 million GMD towards the Fund, and another 20 million GMD for the operations of the Reparations Commission, but the scale of need across victim categories is considerably larger, and indicative figures for full delivery are still being costed as the Commission builds its national victims database.
Community reconciliation programming and civil society engagement represent a further set of needs that, while individually more modest, are essential to the process’s credibility at the local level. The significant reduction of donor funded governance project, and development financing in general, has created real pressure across all of these tracks.
In response, the Government of The Gambia is actively looking inwards, and seeking to diversify our partnerships to build on the essential, and promising foundations for sustainable peace thanks to the UN Peacebuilding Funds.
THE NATIONAL STRATEGY: EMERGING PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT PHASE
Your Excellencies,
The Government of The Gambia, with technical assistance from the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office is in the process of developing a comprehensive national strategic document on transitional justice, one that consolidates lessons from the Spotlight Report, and 3 years of implementation of the TRRC recommendations.
We are committed to getting this document right rather than getting it done quickly, but I would like to present an outline of the strategy's emerging framework and key priorities.
The draft National Strategy for Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding in The Gambia responds to a decisive moment in our process. It does not introduce new commitments; it consolidates those already adopted through the Government White Paper and Implementation Plan on the TRRC recommendations, and provides a shared reference to guide delivery during the period 2026–2027.
Its central purpose is to move The Gambia from a phase defined by frameworks and commitments to one defined by consistent, credible, and visible results.
The strategy is structured around four interrelated orientations: consolidating existing gains; advancing accountability toward visible delivery; reinforcing guarantees of non-recurrence; and supporting reconciliation in a sequenced manner.
It clarifies roles across institutions, prioritizes coordination and public communication, and identifies targeted areas for financing and partnership. The strategy acknowledges candidly that the principal challenge today is not the definition of commitments, but their translation into outcomes that victims and communities, and all Gambians can see and feel.
The emerging strategic priorities for the next phase are: (1) operationalizing the Special Prosecutor's Office and the hybrid Special Tribunal; (2) accelerating the reparations programme, including through the Reparations Fund; (3) deepening reconciliation at the community level; (4) advancing security sector reform; and (5) finalizing outstanding legislative reforms. These priorities build on existing national frameworks and reflect the evidence generated by the Spotlight research.
OUR ASK OF THE COMMISSION
Sustained Political Attention and Advocacy
Your Excellencies,
The Gambia asks the Peacebuilding Commission to continue its political accompaniment. This includes advocating with bilateral partners and international financial institutions for sustained, flexible, and predictable support for The Gambia's transitional justice process. Political attention from this body sends an important signal of solidarity to our victims, our civil society, and our people, and we do not take it for granted.
Financial Support for the Special Tribunal and Reparations
We appeal to member states and partners to consider concrete financial and technical contributions — particularly for the operationalization of the hybrid Special Tribunal and the reparations programme. ECOWAS has provided its political and institutional endorsement for prosecutions. What is now required is funding. The architecture exists; what must follow are resources to operationalize this ambitious- but carefully designed, post-conflict criminal accountability mechanism.
The Gambia as a Model for South-South and Triangular Learning
The Gambia stands ready to share its experience — the lessons of truth-seeking, the importance of institutional anchors, the vital leadership role of victim, women and youth led civil society organizations, and around community-level reconciliation — with countries navigating similar transitions. The Peacebuilding Commission can play a critical bridging role in facilitating that exchange, and we welcome that partnership.
CLOSING: RESOLVE, NATIONAL OWNERSHIP, AND PARTNERSHIP
To conclude, Your Excellencies,
The Gambia's transitional justice process is nationally owned, evidence-based, and irreversible. The Jammeh era is part of our history — but it will not define our future. We have held consultations with our people, built institutions, passed laws, and conducted research into what has worked well, and what can be improved. We are in the process of learning from our own doings, both lessons and best practices, whilst responding to shifts in global political and financial and economic dynamics, with sharper focus of what has always been our objective: the reconstruction of our nation rooted in respect for human rights, the rule of law, human dignity and sustainable peace.
What we now ask is that the international community match our commitment with sustained, reliable support. Since 2017, and despite a long list of multifaceted challenges, The Gambia has demonstrated that where there is political will, there is a way. We remain resolute. We remain committed. And we remain grateful for the solidarity of this Commission.
Continue to stand with The Gambia.
I thank you for your kind attention.
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