VP receives Mano River delegation

Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, the Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs, yesterday morning, received in her office a delegation from the Mano River Union countries.

Led to the State House by Madam Hannah Forster, the executive director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, the delegation comprised participants from the three Mano River Union countries; Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Speaking to a group of waiting newsmen, shortly after their audience with the vice president, Mrs Hannah Forster said that their mission to State House was to inform Vice President Njie-Saidy about a three-day consultative meeting held in the country for Mano River Union countries, on the Protocol on the Rights of  Women in Africa.

According to her, they also informed the vice president that the meeting accorded them the opportunity to review the progress being made in the promotion and projection of women’s rights in Africa. "We also told her that at the end of the meeting we were expected to come up with an action plan that would pave the way forward for the cause of the protocol in various countries," the ACDHRS executive director said, noting that the vice president, in reaction, was very much appreciative of the move.

According to her, the delegation was very much impressed with the work of the vice president, and that they expressed their appreciation of the support she isgiving to Gambian women locally as well as those in other parts of Africa.

She informed reporters that the consultative meeting was supported by the Solidarity of the African Women’s Rights, which is a coalition of about 30 NGOs working on Women’s Rights.  She noted that the objective of the meeting was to strategise for the acceleration of the ratification of the African Union protocol in the rights of women in Africa for Mano River Union countries.

One of the reasons why The Gambia hosted the meeting, according to Madam Foster, was to enable the member countries to see how far The Gambia had gone in terms of domesticating the protocol.

For her part, Honourable Regina Sokan, one of the delegates and a member of the Liberian House of Representatives, said it was good for them to come and see how the first country that had ratified the protocol was implementing it, in the quest to map out the way for other countries. She concluded by saying that the ratification of the protocol was good since it stands to promote the interest of African women.