The Gambia signed the Convention against Torture on 23 October 1985 and did not ratify it for thirty-three years, acceding on 28 September 2018. Its initial report to the Committee against Torture fell due on 28 October 2019. It has never been filed, and the Committee has never examined The Gambia. There are no concluding observations to cite.
Why this page exists
The Gambia is one of the countries people in the register hold protection against. This page exists partly to record an absence. Where other pages on this site quote a finding of a United Nations body, here there is none to quote, and that is itself the finding.
What The Gambia has accepted
The depositary record shows signature on 23 October 1985 and accession on 28 September 2018. The Convention entered into force for The Gambia on 28 October 2018. It has made no declaration under article 22, so an individual cannot complain about The Gambia to the Committee against Torture.
Why there is nothing from the Committee
The initial report was due on 28 October 2019, one year after entry into force. The reporting record shows the report outstanding and no symbol issued for it. There is no list of issues and no concluding observations. Searches of the United Nations document system for CAT/C/GMB/CO/1, CO/2, COAR/1 and QPR/1 return nothing.
One caution for anyone researching this. The Gambia was examined in March 2025 by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances. That is a different treaty body under a different convention, and its report is not a Committee against Torture document. It should not be cited as one.
What the register records
D.A. v. Noem, District Court for the District of Columbia, 15 September 2025. Five citizens of Nigeria and The Gambia, each of whom had been granted withholding of removal or deferral of removal after an immigration judge found they were more likely than not to face persecution, torture or death at home, were woken in the middle of the night on 5 September 2025 at an immigration detention facility, shackled, and put aboard a United States military cargo plane bound for Ghana. They were not allowed to notify family or counsel.
The entry is in the register of court decisions, and the receiving state is covered on the Ghana page.
Sources
Treaty status and entry into force: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary record for the Convention against Torture, chapter IV-9, read 14 September 2026.
Reporting status: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, treaty body reporting record for The Gambia, read 14 September 2026.