Democracy Watch Gambia has raised concern over the country’s National Human Rights Commission complaint handling process. 

The lobby group which seeks to preserve and strengthen human rights and rule of law in the Gambia alleged that the NHRC was failing to investigate abuse complaints.

“NHRC Gambia appears to be masking its failure to discharge the statutory mandate to consider and impartially investigate complaints of human rights violations,” the group said in a statement on X formerly Twitter.

“Duty bearers’ compliance, will only be as good as NHRC Gambia’s willingness to hold them accountable. So, it stands to reason that the rise in breaches by State actors, is a testament to NHRC Gambia’s neglect of mandate to impartially investigate & determine complaints.

“From our experience, NHRC Gambia has a track record of undermining complaints, and unduly leaning on complainants to drop complaints under the guise of ‘negotiated resolution’ (but at the expense of complainants). The facts indicate that this mandate is routinely neglected,” DWG said.

“Such neglect, unfortunately comes at a cost, and to the detriment of the Gambian people whose taxes fund NHRC Gambia to carry out the mandate it appears to unfortunately shy away from, and shield that fact from its report.

“So, we’re very concerned with the critical omission, without which facts it’s impossible to examine that aspect of NHRCGambia’s mandate with respect to the reporting period,” it added.

The NHRC Gambia has been contacted for comment. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba