A/HRC/28/68/Add.4 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment conducted a joint visit with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions1 to the Gambia from 3 to 7 November 2014, at the invitation of the Government. The visit was originally scheduled for August 2014 but was postponed by the Government at the last minute for reasons still unknown. 2. The Special Rapporteur met with the Vice-President of the Gambia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice,2 the Solicitor General and Director of Public Prosecutions, the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, the Director General of the National Drug Enforcement Agency, the Director General of Prisons, the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Minister of Health, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and High Court judges and the government Ombudsman. He also met with representatives of United Nations agencies, the diplomatic community, non-governmental organizations and civil society. 3. This was the first visit ever by any of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. However, the Special Rapporteur wishes to express his deep regret over the unwillingness of the Government to grant freedom of movement and inquiry in all areas of detention facilities, in a clear violation of the terms of reference for fact-finding missions by special rapporteurs (E/CN.4/1998/45, annex, appendix V), despite having agreed to those terms in writing just days before the official visit commenced. 4. Owing to the denial by the Government of access to the security wing of Mile 2 Central Prison, the visit cannot be viewed as “fully fledged”, since an integral element of the mandate, namely, being allowed unrestricted and unsupervised access to all areas of detention facilities for the purposes of interviewing detainees in private and examining their conditions of detention was denied. Therefore, the Special Rapporteurs suspended their visit to Mile 2 Central Prison and to all other places of detention. However, they decided to continue to meet officials, victims, witnesses and non-governmental sources, as the visit was already well under way. Unrestricted access to detention facilities is an integral part of any official visit undertaken by a special procedures mandate holder. The restrictions imposed on the Special Rapporteur by the Government during the course of this visit were unprecedented since the establishment of the mandate 30 years ago. 5. The Special Rapporteur hopes that, despite this severe setback, a meaningful dialogue can be established with the Government. Many interlocutors, in particular victims, took a great personal risk to meet with the Special Rapporteur. A genuine dialogue between the Government, civil society and the outside world is very much needed for human rights to begin to take hold in the Gambia. 6. The attempted coup d’état on 30 December 2014 and its aftermath illustrate that the Gambia is at a pivotal moment. The President seems poised to further suppress fundamental human rights and retreat into isolation from the country's neighbours, the region and the international community. 1 2 See A/HRC/29/37/Add.2. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice were removed from the Cabinet in January 2015. 3