GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. The Government of the Republic of Senegal has the honor to present its combined ( 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th) periodic report in a single volume to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (hereinafter referred to as the African Commission) pursuant to Article 62 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (i.e. the African Charter) adopted on 28 June 1981 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at their meeting in Nairobi and ratified by Senegal on 13 August 1982. Since then, the African Charter has been an essential component of the national legal system of Senegal as it has « authority1 superior » to national legislation and regulations.
2. This report is a revised version of the one submitted to your Secretariat by the previous government of former President Abdoulaye WADE in October 2011. In fact, the new Senegalese authorities who took over after the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, deemed it appropriate to update all the information submitted to you in respect of the implementation of the African Charter in Senegal, and especially to provide some facts about the preliminary steps taken to give effect to the authorities’ determination to make human rights promotion and protection the cornerstone of the new political reforms promised to the people of Senegal.
3. The Government of the Republic of Senegal therefore hopes that the consideration of this revised periodic report will provide a valuable opportunity for open and constructive dialogue with members of this august Commission concerning the effective implementation of the African Charter, the issues and challenges it poses for a country which, in spite of its limited resources, is making efforts to properly discharge its treaty obligations.
4. Our periodic report starts with a preliminary section devoted exclusively to answers provided by the Senegalese Government on relevant recommendations contained in the concluding observations you forwarded to Senegal after reviewing our last periodic report. Thereafter, it puts the implementation of the relevant provisions of the African Charter in context by providing vital information on the legal, political, economic, social and cultural conditions underlying their implementation in Senegal. It also provides some information on the application of special provisions of the Charter and the problems faced by the authorities in their implementation during the period under review, which incidentally coincides with the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)2 .
