Building a Path to Criminal Accountability
Accountability is an essential part of addressing the legacy of human rights violations. It involves establishing responsibility for crimes, pursuing justice through lawful processes and ensuring that allegations of serious wrongdoing are addressed by competent and independent institutions.
In The Gambia, the TRRC's findings and recommendations have informed the development of a specialised accountability framework for serious violations committed between July 1994 and January 2017. This framework includes the Special Prosecutor's Office, the Special Accountability Mechanism and the Special Criminal Division of the High Court, alongside the development of the ECOWAS-backed Special Tribunal for The Gambia.
This section explores the legal foundations of these mechanisms, the work involved in establishing and operationalising them, and the role criminal accountability plays within the broader transitional justice process. It also examines the importance of effective investigations, credible evidence, fair trials, victim and witness protection, and due process. Accountability is not measured by the creation of institutions alone, but by their capacity to carry out their mandates independently, fairly and effectively.
The TRRC documented serious human rights violations and recommended prosecutions. The Special Prosecutor’s Office is part of the institutional framework established to pursue criminal accountability for crimes committed during the period under the Commission’s mandate.
Explain the legal framework, the roles of the SPO, Special Criminal Division and Special Tribunal, and how the different components are intended to work together.
Explain why complex investigations require trained investigators, forensic capacity, documentary evidence, witness support and sustained institutional resources.
Explain victim participation, witness protection, fair-trial guarantees, the presumption of innocence and the importance of credible, legally admissible evidence.
