NHRC mobile Legal Aid Clinic Embarked On Community Outreach

NHRC mobile Legal Aid Clinic Embarked On Community Outreach

As part of their mandate to Empower citizens within the country , NHRC legal mobile clinic has toured the communities of CRR North from the 14 to 18 of March 2022 with the aim to empowered citizens to have access to timely and sustainable justice .

The NHRC explains the importance of this tour and the clinic’s intervention , below is the excerpt of the report

“Since inception it was an “”objective of the NHRC’s Mobile legal Aid Clinic to sensitize communities on the works and function of the commission and other relevant institutions responsible to protect human right so as to increase understanding of members of communities’ ,basic human right strength Access to justice especially to the marginalized group of people in the Rural areas and most vulnerable .

The National Human Rights Commissions’ (NHRC)Mobile Legal Aid clinics team holds a Four (4)days tour to various communities in central River Region North to listen to their problems and render Advice.

The Team received various concerns from the communities. They ranged from socio economic rights, namely access to farmlands, limited access to health care facilities, especially for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, education, and access to clean drinking water to legal issues relating to police bail, cattle theft and illegal charges levied for laissez passez on Gambian nationals when they commute from one village to another without IDs.

Several women also raised concern about access to maternal health facilities, especially during and after delivery, as a major challenge. Women of Bati Ndar said they travel for more than 5 kilometers to Njau Health Centre to deliver their babies, sometimes using donkey carts to get to Njau.
The Team made it clear that access to timely health care services, especially for pregnant mothers, is a basic human right and the lack of it can adversely affect the lives and health of both mother and baby.

Another concern was lack of access to clean drinking water. This is also a fundamental human right that these communities do not enjoy in full. Without access to water, complainants stated that other basic rights such as rights to health and food are affected. Water is critical not only to the attainment of food security, hygiene, and sanitation, but the overall health of our communities, especially children.

While this visit of the Mobile Legal Aid Clinics Team mainly focused on basic social and economic rights that these communities are entitled to, they also brought to light deeper socio-cultural challenges, especially those affecting girls such as child marriage.

The Commission, withboard will continue to work in close partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, NCCE and NALA to ensure that these violations of human rights are addressed.