Gambia: NPWJ welcomes Isatou Touray’s candidature to the 2016 presidential election

 
No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) welcome Isatou Touray’s announcement to run as first ever female independent candidate for the 2016 presidential election in The Gambia as a historic step in the political process of the country.
 
Dr. Touray has devoted her career to the elimination of female genital mutilation (FGM) and the promotion of women’s empowerment in The Gambia and Africa as a whole. From 2009 to 2014, she served as Secretary General and member of the Board of the Inter African Committee a Pan African Network aimed at the elimination of harmful practices with a membership of over 28 African countries. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), whose longstanding awareness-raising and advocacy activities were instrumental in the adoption by the Gambian Parliament of specific legislation criminalising FGM in December 2015.
 
Through her tireless work in the field and at the political and legislative level, Dr. Touray played a pivotal role in heightening political will to address this human rights violation, serving as an outstanding model for women, girls, and grassroots groups and activists both in The Gambia and internationally. We had the honour to work closely with her in the struggle to promote legal reform to ban the practice in The Gambia, joining efforts also in the framework of the global campaign which led to the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Resolution banning FGM worldwide (A/RES/67/146), on December 2012.
 
We wish Dr. Touray all the best in this new challenge, and are fully confident that with her unwavering and steadfast dedication to the cause of human rights she can contribute to advance her country’s future on the path to democracy, good governance and the rule of law.
 
For more information, contact Alvilda Jablonko, Coordinator of the FGM Program, on ajablonko@npwj.org or Nicola Giovannini, email:ngiovannini@npwj.org, phone: +32 2 548 39 15.