The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) have commended The Gambia’s National Assembly for passing the country’s Access to Information Bill 2021 into Law Wednesday, July 1, 2021 and called on President Adama Barrow to speedily sign the Bill into Law to consolidate the restoration of participatory democracy in the country which began with his ascension to power in 2017, following the historic elections of December 2016.
In a joint statement by Ms. Ann Iyonu, Executive Director of the GJF, and Mr. Edetaen Ojo, MRA’s Executive Director, the two organizations noted that “the signing of the Bill into Law by President Barrow will enable the Government of The Gambia to achieve a significant milestone in advancing the right of access to information for Gambians as a fundamental human right guaranteed under several international human rights instruments to which The Gambia is a party, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is the foundational human rights instrument on the African continent.”
According to them, 23 African countries presently have specific national access to information laws, with most of such laws coming from countries in West Africa while The Gambia is the only country in Anglophone West Africa that has not yet enacted or adopted a national access to information legislation.