Report on Citizenship Law The Gambia Gaye Sowe and Maria Saine 1. Introduction The Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, 1997 1 recognises the importance of citizenship by providing for it in Chapter III. In The Gambia, one can be a citizen by birth, by descent, by marriage or by naturalisation. Certain constitutional rights are tied to citizenship. For instance, and similar to almost all jurisdictions, to be eligible to vote and be voted for, one must be a citizen of The Gambia. Further, to be eligible to run for the office of president, one has to be a Gambian citizen by birth. Persons holding dual citizenship are also barred from running for the office of president and cannot hold the position of minister in the government. This report covers issues of citizenship in The Gambia from pre-independence onwards. Since the emergence of The Gambia as an independent state on 18 February 1965, the issue of citizenship has continued to be linked to various socio-political issues. The report seeks to map the main events and turning points in the narrative of Gambia’s changing citizenship regime. The focus will be on the citizenship regime from colonial rule, post-independence and the current debates on citizenship in the country. Citizenship in The Gambia is deeply influenced by British law on citizenship. It is at the same time being transformed by demographic and political shifts. In recent times, there have been attempts to make changes to the current provisions on citizenship in the 1997 Constitution. One of such propositions is to make provision for automatic citizenship for all persons born in the country regardless of whether their parents are Gambians or not. Another proposed change is to reduce the number of years required for a person married to a Gambian citizen to register for citizenship in the country from 7 years to 5 years.2 This report is organised as follows. The first part sets out the historical background of the legal framework of The Gambia’s citizenship regime. It looks at both the colonial history and the constitutional history of The Gambia’s citizenship laws. The second part looks at the current citizenship regime. It focuses both on a textual reading of the statutory provisions as well as the legal and political context informing the various and related amendments. The third part looks at the recent and current political debates and reform plans and is followed by the conclusion of the report. 1 The 1997 Constitution was approved by national referendum on 8 August 1996, and entered into force on 16 January 1997 (Act No. 1 of 1997). Hence it is referred to as the Constitution of The Gambia, 1997. 2 Report of the Constitutional Review Commission on the Draft Constitution for the third republic of The Gambia, 30th March 2020. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2021/7 - © 2021 Author(s) 1