His Lordship, the Chief Justice of the Gambia Hassan B Jallow has returned from Turkey where he attended the inaugural Congress of the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of the Islamic World from the 22-24 December 2022. The event was attended by Chief Justices and Presidents of Constitutional Courts of Muslim countries. The two-day convergence was opened by the President of the Republic of Turke y His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Conference is established as an independent and autonomous platform with the aim of exchanging experiences and information on mutual concern relating to constitutional cases and jurisprudence for the promotion of democracy, human rights and rule of law.

The Statute of the conference was prepared by a Working Committee, at expert level, comprising The Gambia, Turkiye, Indonesia, Algeria and Pakistan.

Addressing the participants on the theme of the Conference: “The Role of the Higher Courts in the Protection of Fundamental Rights”, Chief Justice Jallow urged judges to be fully committed to the independent and impartial enforcement of human rights through an imaginative and purposive interpretation of the law. He further suggested that for more effective enforcement of human rights at the national level and in order to supplement the efforts of the courts, there is the need for the creation of other non- judicial bodies such as the Ombudsman and the National Human Rights Commission.

The Meeting ended with the adoption of the Conference Statute and the Istanbul Declaration. The Hon. Chief Justice of The Gambia and all other representatives of the various Constitutional Courts present appended their respective signatures on the Statute and thus became Founding Members of the Conference dubbed the CCJ-I.