He stressed that discrimination against women was not permitted by the Gambian Government.

Unfortunately, she did not sense such political will on the part of the Gambian Government.

Ms. Popescu said that the participation by Gambian women in political life was particularly low.

Ms. Simms said that it was under article 16 that Gambian practice diverged most from the Convention.

Ms. Tavares da Silva agreed with Ms. Dairiam that, in many cases, the Gambian elite was more conservative than society at large.

Ms. Fye Hydara (Gambia) said that once Gambian girls had been educated, many of the problems under discussion were likely to disappear.

Ms. Singhateh (Gambia) said that section 24 of the Gambian Constitution provided for legal aid in capital offence cases and cases punishable by life imprisonment.

Lastly, she enquired as to the relationship between Vision 2020 and the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women and asked whether the former included a gender equality component.

Special attention would have to be focused on the impact of HIV AIDS on Gambian women, which had been a far less serious issue when the Policy was first formulated.

She also asked about the status of the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women with regard to education what measures had been implemented and what progress had been achieved?

Ms. Dairiam referred to the delegation's observation, in its introductory statement, that non fulfilment of the obligations under article 5 would mean that Gambian women would continue to be dominated by men.

The Committee wanted all States to fully embrace the Convention, and she requested the Government to take the lead and convince the legislature to ratify the Convention and bring its provisions into Gambian law.

She was perplexed by an apparent contradiction in the report, which stated that there was no comprehensive national policy on women but yet provided details of the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women.

Ms. Singhateh (Gambia) said that, even before the introduction of the Children's Act, the Gambian Criminal Code had prohibited sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 15, providing a penalty of seven years imprisonment.

Ms. Bokpe Gnacadja stressed that the Gambian Government had primary responsibility for the introduction of legislative and policy measures to achieve gender equality and urged it to seek new ways of overcoming the obstacles in its path.

The Girls Friendly School Initiative was a programme undertaken by the Department of State for Education in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Gambian Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWEGAM).

She wished to know what kind of a distinction was made between equality and equity, because the Government seemed to believe that gender equality would be achieved when Gambian women were able to participate equally in the country's economic development.

Ms. Fye Hydara (Gambia) said that a national study was being conducted on gender and women's empowerment, and its results would provide information on the level of implementation of the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women in all sectors.

According to the report, the National Women's Bureau was the executive arm of the National Women's Council and the Department of State for Women's Affairs was the focal point for the implementation of the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women.

It posted the findings of research on gender mainstreaming on the newly operational Gambian women's website, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children's Fund, and was in the process of developing its own database.

With regard to implementation of all of the provisions of the Convention in Gambian law, she pointed out that, under the separation of powers, treaties signed by the executive needed to be incorporated into law by the legislature, which could be a slow process in a developing country facing many problems.

Other bodies which advised the Government and provided a framework for Gambian women to emerge from inequality and deprivation and become part of the national development process included a gender focal point network (consisting of representatives of key Government departments and civil society organizations), a National Assembly select committee on women and children, a cabinet committee on gender and a technical committee on gender.