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The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), prior to the drafting of the Draft Constitution for the Republic of The Gambia, had convened a consultative meeting with all the national security outfits (see paragraph 629 of the CRC Report) at a joint security sector meeting held at Baobab Resort in Kololi on Thursday 22nd May, 2019.
The joint security sector consultative meeting was part of the Commission’s broader stakeholder engagement strategy to elicit expert opinions from different security institutions in respect of the Draft Constitution.
Present at the consultative meeting were the National Security Adviser and the Heads and/or representatives of all the national security service institutions, including The Gambia Armed Forces headed at the time by the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Masanneh Kinteh.
Prior to the consultative meeting, all the national security service institutions were invited to make, and had indeed provided, written submissions to the CRC. Their submissions were discussed during the consultative meeting. The meeting also afforded the CRC the opportunity to raise appropriate questions regarding alternative methods of dealing with some of the security issues that were contained in some of the written submissions. These were all thoroughly discussed, and there was ultimately general satisfaction that the consultative meeting was indeed very useful and, as far as the CRC was concerned, it facilitated the drafting of the Chapter in the Draft Constitution regarding the Security Services
Following publication of the proposed Draft Constitution on 15th November, 2019, the CRC publicly invited the general public and all other stakeholders to review the Draft Constitution and provide written comments to the CRC. No written submissions were received from The Gambia Armed Forces. However, the written comments and further proposals received from the National Security Adviser were considered in finalizing the Draft Constitution.
Accordingly, any views to the effect that the national security service sector or any institution thereof was not consulted by the CRC during the constitutional review process would be erroneous and misleading. The CRC encourages the general public and all other stakeholders to read the Draft Constitution and the accompanying Report together in order to be better guided in understanding and appreciating the rationale for some of the decisions enshrined in the Draft Constitution.
Source: CRC