Fatou Baldeh is a Gambian women’s-rights advocate and founder of Women in Liberation and Leadership. A survivor of female genital mutilation, she works to end gender-based violence through education, community engagement and advocacy. She also documented women’s experiences of abuses for The Gambia’s truth commission and received the International Women of Courage Award in 2024.
Satang Nabaneh is a Gambian legal scholar and human-rights practitioner whose work addresses gender equality, constitutionalism and transitional justice. She co-founded Think Young Women and founded Law Hub Gambia. Her academic career has included teaching at the University of The Gambia, research at Pretoria and human-rights leadership at the University of Dayton.
Isatou Touray is a Gambian feminist and development practitioner whose activism has focused on ending female genital mutilation and other harmful practices. She co-founded GAMCOTRAP and helped make the rights and health of women and girls a national public issue. In 2016 she became the country’s first woman presidential candidate.
Bai Modi Joof was a Gambian barrister remembered for defending freedom of expression and representing journalists. After legal training in Britain, he returned to establish his practice in Banjul. His successful defence of a newspaper editor in a sedition case helped lead to his work as legal adviser to the Gambia Press Union.
Na Ceesay Sallah-Wadda has served in prosecution, government legal administration and the superior courts. After work as a High Court and Court of Appeal judge, she became president of the Court of Appeal in 2022. Her career is part of the expanding role of Gambian women in senior judicial leadership.
Haddy Roche served as a magistrate and judge in The Gambia’s superior courts, including the High Court and Court of Appeal. Her treatment during the Jammeh period became part of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission’s examination of judicial interference. She is associated with cases illustrating the importance of an independent bench.
Fafa Edrissa M’Bai worked as a civil servant, magistrate and lawyer before becoming attorney general and justice minister in 1982. His legal career continued across both republics, alongside extensive writing and public speaking. His publications gathered reflections on law, politics and public service, contributing to Gambian legal and intellectual debate.
Cherno Sulayman Jallow is a Gambian jurist with national and international legal experience. He served as attorney general of the British Virgin Islands before joining the Gambian Supreme Court. In 2018 he was designated chair of the Constitutional Review Commission, which conducted public consultations and prepared a proposed new constitution.
Sourahata Baboucarr Semega-Janneh built a long career in Gambian legal practice after serving as registrar and master of the Supreme Court. He was a founding member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and later president of the Gambia Bar Association. His work also included law reform and international election observation.
Gibril Baboucarr Semega-Janneh served in The Gambia’s High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. His career also included judicial service in Sierra Leone and involvement with Commonwealth judicial education. He returned to the Supreme Court in 2017 and was among the senior Gambian justices who retired in 2021.
