Democracy, human rights and governance in The Gambia
Subtitle: essays on social adjustment
By: Aboubacar Abdullah Senghore
Publisher: CENMEDRA, The Centre for Media and Development Research in Africa
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Banjul
Language: eng
Number of pages: 308
ISBN-13: 9789983960044
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Democratization; Democracy; Politics and government
Description: The first chapter explores the origin of the philosophy of law and society in relation to contemporary international human rights law. Democracy as a governance system is discussed in the second chapter. First; the chapter conceptualises governance, good governance and democracy. Drawing on this, the second part of the second chapter argues that democracy is an open-source concept that should be fitted to the social and indigenous political cultures. The later part of second chapter puts the Gambian democracy in context by identifying democratic practices in state institutions based on universal democratic norms. chapters 3 and 4 examine the Gambian judiciary and legislature respectively. chapter 3 discusses the judiciary as the watchdog of the constitution, using every-day law cases to demonstrate judicial independence in the Gambia. chapter 4 on the other hand examines the oversight functions of the legislature by evaluating the roles of PAC/PEC and the Ombudsman as instruments of democratic accountability in the Gambia.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : human rights and democracy in the Gambia : Is the Gambia a democratic state?; title: 1. Africa in a changing world : the major governance crisis in West Africa and the way forward; title: 2. Liberal democracy and governance in Africa : a brief critique; title: 3. Press freedom and democratic governance in the Gambia : a rights-based approach; title: 4. The judiciary in governance in the Gambia : the quest for autonomy in the second republic; title: 5. International human rights and the laws of nations : a brief analysis of the philosophical foundations, basic premises and historical background of human rights from the conventional and Islamic perspectives; title: 6. Law faculties, ethics and legal professionalism : a contemporary African perspective; title: 7. Harnessing traditional governance institutions to improve governance in West Africa; title: the case study of the Gambia; title: Conclusion : towards Arab-African integration in the struggle against western hegemony and imperialism : a critical perspective.