By: Kebba AF Touray
The National Assembly of the Gambia on Monday, 4 December adopted the report on the bill entitled “Criminal Offences Bill 2023” which seeks to remove provisions that are inimical to freedom of speech.
Tabling the report before members, the Chairperson of the Committee explained that following the first reading of the Bill on 22 June 2020, and subsequently its Second Reading on 13 July 2020, the Bill was referred to the Standing Committee for scrutiny and to the Plenary for action. He, however, said that following the dissolution of the 5th Legislature and the subsequent composition of the 6th Legislature in 2022, the Bill was re-introduced by the Minister for Justice, and was then referred to the Committee to continue its scrutiny.
“The Bill, as clearly reflected in the ‘Objects and Reasons’, seeks to align our criminal justice legislation with current trends by removing all provisions inimical to freedom of speech such as criminal defamation and sedition,” the Chairperson said.
He added that additionally, the Bill also seeks to close a long-standing legal lacuna by expanding the criminal jurisdiction of Gambian courts to offences committed by persons outside the country and who thereafter enter The Gambia, instead of extraditing them for trial in a foreign state. He informed members that criminal law is fundamental in society because it provides deterrence, rehabilitation, punishment, protection, maintenance of social order, and protects individual rights and liberties. The chairperson said that in fulfilling its mandate, the Standing Committee reached out to entities such as the Ministry of Justice, the National Human Rights Commission, and the Ministry of Interior, through the Office of the Inspector General of Police, the Gambia Bar Association, The Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, and Female Lawyers Association of the Gambia, as well as a host of renowned legal practitioners across the country. He reported that the Committee reviewed each of the Clauses in the Bill, and presented their recommendations and observations which included the recommendation on Clause 4 (4, b) dealing with the extension of jurisdiction of the courts. This Section, he said, provides for the jurisdiction of Gambia’s courts which extends to every place within the country, including her territorial waters and onboard aircraft and ships bearing the flag of the Gambia.
With this Clause, the committee recommended that the purposes that Clause stands for as part of the Bill, with the following amendment: a) “is done by a person outside The Gambia who afterward enters The Gambia”, instead of “…and afterward”.
On the General Rules as to criminal responsibility, the Committee proposes that Part IV stands as part of the Bill with the following amendment on Clause 8 which deals with ‘mistake of fact’.
The committee recommended that Clause 8 stands as part of the Bill with the following amendment: I. remove all the ‘commas’ in line 2.
“I rise to the table before this august Assembly, the report of the Human Rights Committee of the legislature and Constitutional Matters on the Criminal Offences Bill 2023, for the consideration and adoption of the Plenary,” the Chairperson of the Committee said in moving a motion on the Bill.
After that, members unanimously adopted the report of the Human Rights Committee on the Criminal Offences Bill 2023.
