At the invitation of his brother and friend His Excellency Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, President of the Republic of The Gambia, His Excellency Mr. Abdou Diouf, President of the Republic of Senegal paid a friendship visit to the Republic of The Gambia from 12-14 November, 1981.

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, together with a related exchange of notes, signed at The Hague on June 12,1981.

I transmit also, for the information of the Senate, the report of the Department of State with respect to the treaty.

The treaty is one of a series of modern mutual assistance treaties being negotiated by the United States. The treaty is self-executing and utilizes existing statutory authority.

The new treaty provides for a broad range of cooperation in criminal matters. Mutual assistance available under the treaty includes: (1) executing requests relating to criminal matters; (2) taking of testimony or statements of persons; (3) effecting the production, preservation, and authentication of documents, records, or articles of evidence.

The Eighteenth Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, June 24-27, 1981, made an historic step toward the protection of human rights in Africa when it passed the Banjul Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on to the member states of the O.A.U. to commence the ratification process of that document. The Charter represents the culmination of a two year drafting process.

From November 28 to December 8, 1979, a gathering of African experts met in Dakar, Senegal to prepare the first draft of the proposed African Charter. The stated objective of the experts was to prepare an African human rights instrument based upon an African legal philosophy and responsive to African needs.