Fatou Jagne 🇬🇲

Fatou Jagne is a Gambian human rights defender with over 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She founded the ARTICLE 19 office in West Africa in Senegal in 2010 after joining the organisation in 2002 as the Africa programme manager based in South Africa. For over a decade, she has overseen and led the organisation’s activities in West Africa. She has led ARTICLE 19’s work with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), advocating for the adoption of a declaration of principles on freedom of expression in Africa and the establishment of the mechanism of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa in 2004.

Prior to ARTICLE 19, she worked for the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and developed programmes for the judiciary and legal practitioners in The Gambia. Fatou Jagne is the founder and director of the Center for Women Rights and Leadership.

She has received numerous accolades for her work on human rights. These include the French Legion of Honour (Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite) in 2018, the West Africa Shield Award from the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network in 2019, the Press Freedom Hero Award from the Gambia Press Union in 2020, the Deyda Hydara Award in 2021, and the Legacy in Activism Award from the SheAwards Gambia in 2023. She was included in the first list of 100 most influential African women by Advance Media in 2019.

Country: The Gambia

Organisation: Center for Women Rights and Leadership

African civil society