Understanding The Gambia’s Reparations Framework

Enacted by the National Assembly in 2023, the Victims Reparations Act establishes the definitive institutional and financial framework governing redress for gross human rights violations committed between July 1994 and January 2017.

The Act is deliberately designed to protect reparations from political discretion, creating an independent statutory framework that defines eligibility criteria, procedural standards, and the operational duties of administering bodies.

The Victims Reparations Commission is the central autonomous body responsible for receiving, investigating, verifying, and determining individual and collective reparations applications across all regions.

Its statutory responsibilities encompass formulating transparent guidelines for monetary compensation, establishing criteria for urgency, and securing non-monetary interventions including continuous medical treatment and psychiatric rehabilitation.

Redress cannot exist without sustainable, safeguarded financing. The Act creates the Reparations Fund to receive direct national budgetary allocations, recovered illicit assets, and international partner contributions.

To preserve public and victim trust, the Fund is subject to independent statutory auditing, strict ring-fencing, and mandatory annual reporting before the National Assembly.

Clear demarcation of responsibilities is critical for transparency. The Victims Reparations Commission independently administers claims, verifies victim status, and disburses remedies.

In contrast, the Post-TRRC Unit (PTU) acts as the cross-governmental coordination entity, tracking macro implementation milestones across all 263 White Paper recommendations without exercising adjudicative powers over individual claims.