When the Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh said he will ‘execute child rapist’ and ‘send to prison for life those that dump babies,’ I thought for a minute that he forgot that this tiny West African nation already has some of the best child protection laws worth emulating across the world. It did not take me long to come to the realization that this African leader, who has ruled his country with an iron fist is not policy oriented.
There are already existing laws with serious punishments for child rapist and neglect of children.
Coming from the Gambia myself and being a child rights activist, I know that President Jammeh make pronouncements that defy logic and make people who barely know him to debate if he is actually a president or a mere confused politician in this day and time.
“If you cannot take care of your babies, bring them to State House,” he said strongly during the launching of the First Lady, Madam Zainab Suma Jammeh’s new foundation, Operation Save the Children.
The continuous rise in child sexual abuse and exploitation in Gambia is not a lack of child protection laws but a result of failure in enforcing them and the many loopholes in policies that affect children’s welfare. Even though the Gambia Police Force has a child protection department, the unit is not equipped with the necessary tools and operational training needed to adequately protect children and help apprehend and prosecute their abusers and exploiters, especially young girls.
The Child Protection Alliance (CPA) has provided training to the officers of the Gambia Police Force and even the military in handling child cases and in protecting children. But an inter-organizational group like CPA can only do so much and has extensively contributed to the having of child protection officers across the country. The CPA helped to address one of the biggest threats to child protection, which is the “maslaha” syndrome (pathetic forgiveness) and culture of silence.
Many a times, the abusers of children are trusted caregivers, close family relations, guidance and older friends trusted by the family. The Gambia is a deeply rooted cultural and traditional society – a reason why when children are sexually abused, family members agree to keep it a secret believing it will prevent discrimination and stigma towards them, and not bring shame to their family name.
This particular cultural belief has perpetually helped swept so many child sexual abuse cases under the rug never to be reported to authorities or heard of in the community.
Groups such as the Child Protection Alliance executed national campaigns to educate people even in the remotest of villages in the country to encourage them to report child sexual abuse cases. As a result, we have seen more child abuse cases reported today and that culture of silence is gradually fading away – even though there is still a long way to go.
What President Jammeh needs to do is to revisit his policies especially the budget allocation for children. The Local Governments also need to make their budgets more child friendly and cover child protection needs even though they offer needy students scholarship. There is a need for the Ministry of Children’s Affairs but I strongly believe, instead of the Office of the President and the National Assembly getting nearly D600 Million ($15 Million) combined out of a supplementary budget, with more than 90% of this allocated to the Office of the President, to spend within 60 days before the end of the fiscal year, such sum could have been allocated to law enforcement for community oriented training, procurement of police patrol cruisers, establishment of a more advance emergency response hotline, needed technology and covering operational cost such a fueling of the vehicles, to keep citizens safe especially in protecting children from abuse. This will not only protect children but significantly reduce crime rates across the country.
President Jammeh will not have to worry about ‘executing’ anyone for rape if the laws are full enforced with law enforcement officers provided with all the financial and operational tools they need to keep our communities safe.
Unfortunately the Gambia’s law enforcement and judiciary are busy arresting and prosecuting human rights defenders, activists, journalists and political opponents.
President Yahya Jammeh must bear in mind that majority of those who dump their babies are minors, who already feel threatened by their families and psychologically disturbed.
What such children need is not prosecution and a subsequent life sentence or to take their children to the State House. The State House will not be able to sustain that if they have such a program. In fact such a program is not for the Office of the President but the Department of Social Welfare. What has always been missing is support for these children.
The right thing for President Jammeh to have not just said but do, was to go back to the country’s social welfare policy and make sure his office introduce reforms that will provide abused and exploited children with a safe housing, child care support, subsequent job training and placement, counselling, therapy and alternative care options such as adoption if they cannot or are too young to care for their babies. They also need health care and education during this period.
These are policy lapses in our nation’s social welfare policy that needs to be addressed.
The supplementary budget given to the National Assembly and Office of the President and even the judiciary to buy vehicles, pay for hotels, travel can be used to help implement some of these new policy changes and address law enforcement needs.
President Jammeh’s, lawmakers’ and other politicians’ belief that legislation, which is accompanied by execution or life imprisonment is the best measure to curbing child rape or baby dumping is mediocre and unless the root causes and policy loopholes surrounding both issues are adequately addressed, including budgetary constraints for both the social welfare department and law enforcement, the menace will continue to exist.
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By Sam Phatey Faturadio