Gambia

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers March 16 to March 22.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers October 14 to October 20.

The trial against Burkina Faso’s exiled former leader for a decades-old assassination case could signal progress on accountability at a time of coups and upheaval regionwide.

On November 2—the day before the U.S. presidential election—more than seventy-one states party to the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a statement in a UN General Assembly plenary session that affirmed their commitment "to preserve the tribunal's independence undeterred by any measures or threats against the Court, its officials, and those cooperating with it." Though the statement did not mention the United States, it was a response to the Trump administration's sanctions against the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other ICC personnel. The statement was supported by NATO member states—except the United States—as well as by most other U.S. allies and friends. It was also supported by Nigeria, South Africa, and other African states. The 1998 Rome Statute established the ICC as a mechanism for holding governments accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide. A total of 123 states are party to it. In effect, it imposes limits on the national sovereignty of those states that accept its jurisdiction. Under President Bill Clinton, the United States signed [PDF] the Rome Statute. However, the George W. Bush administration declined to submit it to the Senate for ratification, and no U.S. administration has accepted ICC jurisdiction over the country or its citizens, though Barack Obama’s administration actively cooperated with it. The ICC is based in the Hague. Four of its eighteen judges are African, as is the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, from The Gambia. However, all eight of its active investigations and eighteen active prosecutions involve African states and Africans. Authoritarian African rulers tend to loathe the ICC, accusing it of "racism" and "colonialism." Among others, Uganda (under President Yoweri Museveni) and South Africa (under former President Jacob Zuma) have threatened to withdraw from the court's jurisdiction, though none has actually done so. Fatou Bensouda, however, has pointed out that that six of the eight active investigations have been undertaken at the request of African governments.  At present, the chief prosecutor is looking into whether there are grounds for an ICC investigation in Afghanistan that would primarily focus on the Taliban and Afghani forces but also U.S. military units. She is also looking at complaints about Israel. (The Palestinian State accepts ICC jurisdiction, Israel does not.) Consistent with U.S. policy, the Trump administration forcefully rejects any ICC investigatory role regarding U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. Accordingly, it has imposed economic sanctions on Fatou Bensouda and other ICC personnel that presumably involve personal hardship, including revocation of visas and freezing of U.S. bank accounts. Administration use of economic sanctions has long been common—the Obama administration imposed some two thousand. But their focus was primarily criminals or rogue states, not human rights lawyers such as Bensouda. Further, the Trump administration's rhetoric against the ICC has been strong—a senior administration figure has raised the prospect of abolishing it. The Trump administration's rhetoric and imposition of sanctions on individuals are consistent with its "America First" ideology and adherence to maintenance of absolute American sovereignty, including over American forces stationed abroad. However, its style and rhetoric, more than the substance of its position, distance itself from its traditional allies and partners and human rights organizations. But the rhetoric is likely to be welcomed by authoritarian leaders in Africa—as well as elsewhere.

The International Court of Justice issued an important decision aimed at protecting Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, but its impact is unclear.

Adam Valavanis is a former intern with the Africa Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. He received a master’s degree in conflict studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Gambia has found itself on the brink of a new political crisis, just three years after the dramatic fall of longtime strongman Yahya Jammeh. Last Month, protestors filled the streets of the capital Banjul, demanding President Adama Barrow’s resignation. Barrow originally agreed to stay in power as a transitional authority for three years, stepping down on January 19, 2020. But earlier this year, Barrow began to lay the groundwork for extending his tenure in office. In late December, Barrow formed a new political party, the National Peoples Party, which would allow him to contest next year's presidential election.  Barrow came to power in January 2017, after a surprise victory over Jammeh at the ballot box. Jammeh, stunned by his loss, initially refused to concede to Barrow, forcing the Economic Community of West African States to intervene on Barrow's behalf. Jammeh then fled to Equatorial Guinea, where he resides today. Betrayed by his refusal to honor their agreement, the coalition of parties that supported him in the 2016 election has begun to turn their backs on Barrow. His team has made it clear that he will remain in office until the 2021 elections. They argue that the agreement in 2016 has no legal basis and since he won the election, he is entitled to serve his full term. Barrow's time in office has been a mixed bag. His greatest achievement has been the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC), launched in 2018. Since its formation, the TRRC has uncovered many of the abuses of the Jammeh regime, having heard from some of the country's most notorious hitmen. Many observers welcomed the TRRC, viewing it as the start of a new chapter in the country’s political history. The commission is expected to release its final recommendations this year. While the TRRC has proven wildly popular in the country, issues such as corruption and economic stagnation persist. Barrow had promised to create jobs and repeal Jammeh-era laws during the 2016 campaign, but very little progress has been made to that end. Some Gambians feel disillusioned under the Barrow regime, seeing it as more of the same.  Barrow's broken promises, particularly his decision to renege on his promise to serve just three years and the potential that he seeks reelection in 2021, have stalled efforts to restore public trust in the government. His self-interest is doing long-term harm to consolidating democratic gains in a country long troubled by authoritarianism. Compounding this unease, there has been recent reporting that Jammeh is seeking reentry into the country following his three-year exile.

Michelle Gavin is a senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. From 2011 to 2014, she served as the U.S. ambassador to Botswana and to the Southern African Development Community. She started at CFR in February 2018. In March, international donors pledged $1.7 billion to Gambia, a small West African state perhaps best known for its eccentric and sometimes brutal recently departed leader, Yahya Jammeh. For over two decades, Jammeh was the only leader the people of Gambia knew, and he tolerated little dissent. After failing to rig the 2016 elections sufficiently to be declared the victor, he tried to remain in office despite electoral defeat. He left only after regional states represented by the Economic Community of West African States, backed by the rest of the international community, exerted substantial pressure on him to go in early 2017. While today Jammeh lives comfortably in Equatorial Guinea, protected by an even longer-serving dictator (Teodoro Obiang has been President since 1979), his country is left to grapple with his legacy: crippling public debt and utterly corroded governing institutions. In the face of these problems, the new government has the added burden of unrealistically high expectations that naturally accompany a long-awaited change at the top.  The winner of the momentous 2016 elections, President Adama Barrow, cohosted the recent donor conference with the European Union. He was seeking support for his government’s comprehensive National Development Program, which is intended to rebuild the economy so that young Gambians have fewer reasons to flee to Europe. It also aims to strengthen the rule of law and reform the security sector to address the repressive legacy of the Jammeh years. The need for multiple sweeping, soup-to-nuts political and economic reforms is a daunting challenge—and one well worth helping Gambians meet.  Gambia is a small state of just over two million people. But it is worth international attention and support because of the potential power of its example. Democratic transitions are notoriously difficult. Such a transition in a multi-ethnic, majority Muslim society is a rare and encouraging development. A successful recovery from a highly personalized and often erratic regime and transformation into one of Africa’s stable democracies can yield valuable lessons and insights for others far beyond Gambia’s borders. Right now, Gambia has political will at the top and a commitment to inclusive processes aimed at giving all Gambians a stake in building a different kind of state. Those raw ingredients are not easy to come by, and with continued international support, they could deliver results that strengthen the hand of democratic forces striving to change repressive regimes elsewhere, proving that there is indeed another way.   

Gambia’s dictator, Yahya Jammeh, announced that Gambia is leaving the Commonwealth of Nations, a “neo-colonialist” institution, in his view. He provided no official explanation for the departure. The British government’s response has been that membership is a decision made by each sovereign state, though it regretted Gambia’s departure. The next Commonwealth Heads of State meeting will take place in Sri Lanka in mid-November, with the heads of state or of government from some fifty countries expected to attend. Membership in the Commonwealth is usually popular in Africa, and it provides an international forum for African (and other) views. The last state to leave the Commonwealth was Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe in 2003. Why did Jammeh do it? Some commentators link it to his ferocious campaign against gay rights (at least in rhetoric—he has talked about decapitating all homosexuals in The Gambia). UK prime minister David Cameron has been a forceful advocate for gay rights and shepherded through parliament the legalization of gay marriage. Others have suggested that gay rights and departure from the Commonwealth is a cover for Jammeh’s human rights violations. Human rights organizations recently have focused on his murderous campaign against alleged witches. Jammeh has close ties with the United States. A military man, he received training at the School of the Americas and, apparently tried unsuccessfully to obtain American citizenship for his two children.