The Gambia's Bloodcurdling Threat

The following op-ed was originally published in The Guardian. Chidi Odinkalu is senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Yahya Jammeh, president of the Gambia, seems determined to drag one of Africa's smallest countries into the kind of instability that other West African countries have struggled to escape. Despite nagging poverty, roads, schools, and medical services have got better under President Jammeh. He has, however, developed a habit of making impolitic and threatening statements that embarrass both his office and his country.

Jammeh recommends herbal paste and bananas as a miracle cure for HIV/AIDS, and boastfully persecutes political opponents. His government is accused of procuring the killing, disappearance, or exile of scores of journalists. As if this were insufficient, Jammeh has now announced an intention to get truly murderous.

A few days before he flew from Banjul for the 64th session of the UN general assembly in New York, Jammeh explicitly threatened to kill human rights workers in his country, including visiting human rights workers and people who co-operate with them.

These are the exact words he uttered in a television address:

I will kill anyone, who wants to destabilize this country. If you think that you can collaborate with so-called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world. I will kill you, and nothing will come out of it. We are not going to condone people posing as human rights defenders to the detriment of the country. If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assured that your security and personal safety would not be guaranteed by my government. We are ready to kill saboteurs.

The Gambia has recognized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in acts of barbarity and that basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from want, and other rights should be protected by rule of law. The Gambia is also a member of the African Union, whose charter adopts universally accepted human rights, including the right to life and personal integrity, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

The African Union created the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), with headquarters in Banjul, capital of the Gambia, as the institution to promote and protect the human rights of individuals and collective rights of peoples throughout Africa. Crucial, too-often dangerous work in these areas is done by non-governmental organizations that investigate human rights abuses, monitor official compliance with human rights agreements, and support cases brought before the commission.

Jammeh's direct death threat issued to human rights workers is not something that can be ignored. With his explicit threat to life, he desecrates his office, mocks the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and dares the African Union to show that its commitments to human rights can be taken seriously. His warning that the Gambia's government would not guarantee the security and personal safety of human rights workers clearly repudiates the headquarters agreement between the Gambia and the African Union, in which the Gambia agreed to guarantee the safety and security of the commission's members and personnel as well as all persons making use of the commission.

The African Union and the ACHPR should demand immediate retraction from President Jammeh. Whether a retraction is forthcoming or not, the African Union should act immediately to relocate its human rights commission's headquarters from the Gambia to another African state whose assurances regarding respect for the commission's mission and work can be trusted. In the meantime, the commission should refrain from holding any meetings or sessions in Banjul or anywhere else in the Gambia. It should take appropriate steps within its powers to see to it that effective, lawful human rights monitoring continues in the Gambia, and make a public statement in support of non-governmental human rights organizations operating in the country.

The governments of the African Union members and other countries should issue clear warnings to President Jammeh that the Gambia will face serious consequences if any commission members or human rights workers, Gambian or foreign, are in any way violated in Gambia by officials or anyone else.

Human rights monitoring and advocacy are crucial components of stability in countries and regions around the world, including the Gambia. President Jammeh should be made to acknowledge this before his people, the people of Africa and the rest of the world.