The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of The Gambia has said it has received reports of ‘serious’ and ‘discriminatory’ practices in Serahule communities in The Gambia.
In a press release signed by Emmanuel Daniel Joof Chairman Gambia National Human Rights Commission Gambia said: “It has been brought to the attention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that, serious and discriminatory practices are being meted out by some members of the Sarahule tribe who regard themselves as nobles on other members of the same tribe they regard as slaves.
The said discriminatory practices among the Sarahule tribe has been recently reported in Koina and Fatoto villages of Kantora District in the Upper River Region,”
The report reaching NHRC suggests that those who regard themselves as “nobles” have been provoking those that they regard as “slaves” by using derogatory, Insulting and threatening language resulting in fighting, assault and disorderly conduct.
The Commission is also aware that caste system is still widespread in some parts of the country in the North Bank Region, the Central River Region, and the Central River Region where some tribes and clans regard others within their own tribes and communities as inferior (slaves) and others as superior (nobles).
Some communities have also been known to discriminate those they regard as “recent arrivals” and therefore regard them as strangers as opposed to those they regard as the original settlers. This kind of discriminatory labelling has translated into discriminatory practices in relation to land ownership and land use, marriage, including segregated burial sites for “nobles” and “slaves”.
The NHRC not only condemns any and all forms of discrimination against anyone within the soil of the Gambia but also wants to make it categorically clear that it is illegal and unlawful under the laws of the Gambia and all the international treaties and conventions that the Gambia has ratified for anyone to discriminate against anybody based on tribe, ethnicity, race, gender, religion and or social status.
The NHRC is therefore calling on all community leaders, religious leaders, opinion leaders, elders, civil and public servants and the citizenry to be very wary and to desist from making discriminatory statements and or engaging in discriminatory practices.
