The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) recently invited the Office of the Ombudsman to its office as part of its consultations with institutions which have a major stake in the process of drafting a new constitution.
The Chairman of the Commission, Justice Cherno Jallow explained that they had been meeting with institutions of governance to hear from them in order to look at how best those institutions could be strengthened.
The Ombudsman Mrs Fatou Njie Jallow gave a summary of the work of the Office of the Ombudsman mainly in the areas of investigation and anti-corruption, human rights and communication.
She informed the commission that the Office of the Ombudsman should be strengthened to continue to operate independently and to also ensure security of tenure for Ombudsman, in order to prevent a recurrence of what happened to the previous Ombudsman when he was sacked by the former president without due process.
On the issue of giving the Office of the Ombudsman enforcement powers of its own rather than relying on the president for enforcement in instances of non-compliance, the Ombudsman was of the view that Ombudsman institutions do not usually have enforcement powers; therefore provisions could be made for resort to the National Assembly by the Ombudsman as an enforcement mechanism.
The commissioners were however informed of the efficacy of persuasion and the use of non-forceful methods which have resulted in the Ombudsman registering beyond 98% compliance. On the issue of the newly created National Human Rights Commission, the position of the Ombudsman could be summarized as follows:
That prior to the creation of the Human Rights Commission the Ombudsman wanted the mandate of the Office to be expanded to give it a broad human rights mandate to include the responsibilities of a human rights commission for reasons of cost effectiveness as is practiced by a number of countries around the world.
Human rights could not be divorced from the work of the Ombudsman; hence the Office created the Directorate of Human Rights which has been embarking on a number of activities.
Since the Human Rights Commission had already been established separate from the Ombudsman, both institutions should continue to exercise their respective human rights mandates, thereby complementing each other as well as providing Gambians with more choice.
It would be necessary for the two institutions to cooperate and to even formalize their cooperation through a memorandum of understanding.
The role of ombudsman institutions has evolved over the years across all continents with ombudsman institutions playing a more active role in human rights. Also maladministration itself is a broad term which includes human rights and corruption.
A 2017 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on ‘the role of the Ombudsman, mediator and other national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights’ urged member countries to encourage their ombudsman institutions to go into human rights. The European Union also encourages the same.
Finally the Ombudsman, Mrs Fatou Njie Jallow, thanked the commission for the invitation. She expressed hope that the commission members would use their judgement to do what is best for the country and come up with a draft constitution that all would be proud of for generations to come.