Gambia: Supreme Court Hears Case Challenging Criminalisation Of Female Circumcision

The five panel of judges of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Hassan B. Jallow has given time for people seeking the court to declare the criminalisation of female circumcision unconstitutional.

Under the Gambian laws, the Supreme Court has the exclusive powers to interpret and enforce the Constitution.

Almameh Gibba, the National Assembly Member for Foni Kansala and seven others have filed a case before the Supreme Court seeking to decriminalise the practice of female circumcision. The case is against the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

Honourable Almameh Gibba presented a Bill before the National Assembly on 4 March 2024 for the repeal of the law banning female circumcision in The Gambia. This practice is widely conducted for religious and cultural reasons which the National Assembly voted against on 15 July 2024 after the adoption of a report by the Health and Gender Committee. Now he is before the Supreme Court on the same mission, which is to decriminalise the practice of female circumcision.

The people and organisations that filed the case were: Almameh Gibba, Yassin Fatty, Nano Jawla, Kadijatou Jallow, Concerned Citizens, Islamic Enlightenment Society, Women’s Association for Islamic Solidarity and Gambian Women are Free to Choose. Yassin, Nano and Kadijatou are natives of Kuntaur in the Central River Region who the

Kaur Magistrate’s Court convicted for engaging in the act of female circumcision.

The applicants (Honourable Almameh Gibba and Others) want the Supreme Court to declare that the amendment of Section 32 of the Women’s Act of 2010 and the insertion of new Sections 32A and 32B in the Women’s (Amendment) Act in 2015 prohibiting the act of female circumcision contravenes the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia. The sections the said amendment violated according to Almameh Gibba and his colleagues were Sections 17 (1) and (2), 25 (1) (c), 28 (1) and (2), 32 and 33 (2) and (3) of the 1997 Constitution.

When the case was called, Almameh Gibba announced his presence and informed the court that he was ready to represent himself in the trial.

The other applicants who are: Yassin Fatty, Nano Jawla, Kadijatou Jallow, Concerned Citizens, Islamic Enlightenment Society, Women’s Association for Islamic Solidarity and Gambian Women are Free informed the court that they are working on getting the service of a lawyer.

The Supreme Court gave them time to find a lawyer because they had still not got a lawyer.

The case was adjourned to the next term of the Supreme Court hearing.

The Court informed them that they should use this period to secure the service of a lawyer.

They are asking the Supreme Court to declare that the amendment of Section 32 of the Women’s Act of 2010 and the insertion of new Sections 32A and 32B in the Women’s (Amendment) Act, which was Act Number 11 of 2015 prohibiting the act of female circumcision contravenes the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia since they are inconsistent with Sections 17 (1) and (2), 25 (1) (c), 28 (1) and (2), 32 and 33 (2) and (3) of the 1997 Constitution and therefore, ultra vires, null and void.