2004 Human Rights Award
Ceremony
of the International League for Human Rights

Speech delivered
by His Excellency
Maître Abdoulaye WADE
President of the Republic of Senegal

New York, September 2004

Excellencies Heads of State and Governments,
Excellency Mr. Secretary General of the United Nations
Ministers,
Ambassadors,
Representatives of International Organizations of the United Nations System,
Mr. Chairman of the International League for Human Rights,
Representatives of Human Rights Orgnaizations,
Representatives of NGOs,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Students,
Dear Friends,

First of all, let me tell you that I was somewhat surprised with a flavor of pride when I learnt that I had been selected by the famous International League for Human Rights to receive the "2004 Human Rights Award".

Thus without taking any much longer, I would like, Mr. Chairman of the International League for Human Rights, to address you and the management of your Association to express my deep gratitude. I am saying that also in the name of my country, which is honored by your choice.

Because beyond my person, this distinction goes to all the Senegalese people who share with me, the same culture without which, my action would not have perhaps attracted your attention in such a particular way.

I am sure that there will be a number of Africans who will be happy about this, because most of them know, like I always say, that I am more African than Senegalese.

I can guess the happiness of many Senegalese who are here today, men and women of all conditions and mostly young people and students who came especially for this event.

And what about those Africans, Europeans, natives of the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and of the Stats of this great America, who came from very far to show their addection and share my happiness, I am saying thank you to all of them from the bottom of my heart.

Let me thank you all for coming in such a great number, leaving your most important businesses to be here to show your affection. I know that some among you did not hesitate to cross the Atlantic Ocean, only to share with me this moment of happiness.

This expression of friendship comforts me and reinforces my conviction that I must always strive a little bit more for the fundamental cause for which we are all here today, the defense and protection of human rights and peace.

You do not really want to hear a philosophical dissertation or a university lecture.

One of my schoolmates had a peculiar adventure:

During an oral examination, the Professor asked him to prepare a presentation on China. He went away to prepare his answer. He came back after a while in front of the teacher and talked for a long time about Japan rather than China. The Professor was amazed and looked at him. He had after all very well developed his subject by the teacher said to him: "you did not answer my question" and gave him a zero, a failing grade.

I do not wish to experience what happened to my friend and talk to you about something other than what you are expecting to hear from me.

I understand that, what you are interested in, is my experience in the areas of human rights and peace, therefore the philosophy I believe in, the experiences I lived, success stories and difficulties I went through.

If you selected me to talk about this subject, it is because you know that I am heading in the right direction in the fight for human rights and peace.

The long history of human rights

Human rights! What a long story!

Ever since the first light of freedom appeared somewhere in England, out of the darkness of dictatorship, wars in the antiquity, wars between nations or more generally wars to appropriate the land, wars motivated by a spirit of conquest or simply tribal wars for the quest of power, there was an indication of the manifestation of freedom and human rights against the power of the kingdom.

Even if we were to go back to the original context of the "Magna Carta" if it is true that it expressed only the right of the barons in 1215 before all the powers of the kingdom, it will be nevertheless a beam that expanded beyond the borders of England.

Four centuries later, in 1679, the "Habeas Corpus Act" was established to guarantee the respect of individual freedom that was, for the first time, formally presented in the act. The protection mechanism of public liberties was then translated into the prohibition of arbitrary arrests and the obligation of public authorities to bring any person who is under arrest before the judge within three days of the arrest.

In 1787, the first American Constitution consecrated the rights of citizens as the expression of the people's conquest over the central authority in a Republic. This republican constitution already drifted away from royal absolutism by replacing it with a power resulting the people's will. However, it was limited to the principle of citizens rights.

Two years later, the 1789 revolution, gave human rights a universal dimension by organizing it within the republic of citizens, where all are equal without any distinction of birth. This revolution was the work of philosophers and thinkers under the light of Reason.

Thereafter the name of "Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen du 26 août 1789".

The 17 articles it contains consecrated the notion of man, in all countries and under all skies. The attributes of mankind are its fundamental liberties associated with its nature based on philosophical and juridical fundaments.

This declaration solemnly proclaimed philosophical liberties, civil and political rights, the property, the security and the right of resistance to oppression, all instituted into natural and permanent human rights.

Slavery was thus abolished as an application of the philosophy that inspired this constitution; it was logical but yet restored later on by Napoleon for economic considerations justified by the exploitation of slaves working in plantations without salary.

Different French regimes were one by one implanted in Senegal, to natives of the four communes, Dakar, Rufisque, Saint Louis and Gorée, whose inhabitants were declared French citizens by birth, which protected them from the status of indigenous, which involved hard labor imposed to "subjects", but also forcing them to citizens' obligations that is to say, mainly to participation in wars to defend the "mother patria".

Based on this principle, the first Senegalese Deputies, will be elcted from 1848 on, and during all the 19th century, at the Palais Bourbon of Paris.

The other African territories, under French domination, will benefit from this prerogative only starting from 1945.

But let me tell you a story that occurred, at the time of this "shared philosophy" inherited from the 1789 Revolution.

Prior to the abolition of slavery, the bourgeois of Saint Louis Senegal, blacks and mulattoes, were such accomplices of white slave owners, to the point that in 1789, at the time of the "Etats Généraux" they begged the king not to abolish the right to sell slaves… as a consequence there was a liberty of trade. As you can see, slave owners can be of all colors.

But here is what happened: A Governor General was appointed by the King, convinced that his ideas were "progressive", he ruled that it is mandatory for Master to treat the slaves well. To make sure they would do exactly that, he made compulsory that the slave have a medical check-up every Wednesday. He would sanction any refusal with severe fines. Unhappy about this Governor that distributed their peace, the Bourgeois of Saint Louis plotted against him and they kidnapped him and took his wife one night when they were both in bed in pajamas; they took them to a boat and disappeared to Dakar.

In order to avoid the Saint-Louisians' revolt in case on were to sanction the authors of the operation, colonial authorities power limited themselves to gesticulations only and appointed a Judge in Saint Louis. Of course that one did not sue anyone… pretending that he had no prosecutor.

The Bourgeois of that time, had the habit of going to France for business or for summer vacation. That is how, Mr. Pellegrin, a Senegalese mulatto, slave owner, leader of the kidnapping operation, came out of a boat tat the Port of Rouen. He was surprised to be cornered by the Gendarmes. He was caught, arrested and thrown in jail and had to appear before the Judge of the Paris Criminal Court. To the big surprise of everyone, the Court acquitted him considering that he was only exercising his right of resistance to oppression, as stipulated in the French constitution.

Another great step of this human right story, would be the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed in 1948 by the United Nations Genmeral Assembly. This declaration, ratified by all the nations, gave a true universal dimension to human rights. In fact, it said: "the ultimate goal… is to establish a way of rights so that mankind is not longer constrained to revolt against tyranny and oppression."

It was therefore all about an ancient value, that goes back to 1789, covered with universality, but also novelty.

The next step was the apparition of the economic and social rights through the declaration of the United Nations General Assembly of, December 4, 1986 which stipulates that "… All fundamental liberties are indivisible and independent; the realization, the promotion and the protection of civil, political, economical, social and cultural rights must benefit from a general attention and be undertaken urgently."

And here we are now in the social and economic rights.

In this respect, the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD which I am one of the initiators, affirms the intangible principle of respect of fundamental values of mankind, before leading to a realistic development plan of Africa in partnership with developed countries.

The ultimate merits of the NEPAD despite slavery, colonization and postcolonial economic domination is to advocate a partnership dialogue in lieu of conflicting relationship.

I think that he NEPAD is going well, since the resources we requested from our partners have been pledged through clear declarations of intent. The only thing that remains now is the implementation.

I must say that the tardiness observed here, are much attributable to our partners as to ourselves. It is in this respect that the president of the World Bank kindly assigned to West Africa nine experts that will be helping the implementation and realization of important resources promised by our partners.

Africsa has pledged to respect the normal world standards of Democracy, namely political pluralism, fair, transparent, free and democratic, periodic elections, human rights, an independent justice, the eradication of corruption, and good governance.

But I believe that the ultimate stage of the evolution of the recognition of human rights that gave them the historical dimension they need was the declaration by the French National Assembly that considers "Slavery as a crime against humanity".

Its extend must be weighted, because this declaration means in fact, that Africans, reduced to slavery for three centuries had fundamentally the same rights as all the citizens of the world today, therefore the right to human dignity.

As far as I am concerned I can say that there has been a considerable progress in the global philosophy of human rights and ethics, because this historical act has completed the universality of human rights that has now expanded into space and time.

Since you are interested in my personal experience, let me give you some examples to illustrate my policy in that regard:

The first objective of the constitution that was adopted in 2001 at my suggestion, one year after I took office was to expand the scope of the said freedoms "Political freedoms": freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of Association, freedom of movements etc…We added the freedom and the right to march, giving any group that wishes to defend its rights or simply attract attention on its faith the possibility of going in the street for a peaceful demonstration. The exercise of this right is unconditional and not subject to any prior authorization but simply requires a declaration.

Unless I am mistaken I think that the Senegalese Constitution is the only one in the world that contains such a provision.

Of course at the beginning, as it is the case for every new thing, everybody wanted, everybody wanted to march, which nearly led to anarchy and disorder, but I think that progressively the Senegalese people understood that it is certainly a matter of right but it must be used wisely.

I succeed in the same way in getting the Unions, prior to sending a warning for a strike, to wear a red arm-band and to continue working. I got this inspiration from the Japanese. Wearing an arm-band being a warning to employers and the government, enabled us to immediately start discussion and to proceed with the necessary mediations required to avoid a strike which is by all means a permanent an integral right included in our constitution but does not present any lesser the inconvenience of reducing national production.

We have included in the Constitution provisions for the protection of children and particularly young girls by prohibiting sexual mutilations (excision) very often practiced in many of our African traditions. I must say that I had a lot of doubts at the time I was making this decision because I was expecting hostile and violent reactions from the traditional environment. On the contrary I was surprised that the measure was widely accepted on the principle but it is by thorough persuasion and a few criminal court sentences that we succeeded in achieving a progressive re-conversion of excision practitioners for whom this was after all the main revenue generating activity. Now there are the very ones campaigning against excision.

One must say that an American NGO, named TOSTAN is helping us in the campaign against excision.

Then we addressed young girls early marriage issues.

But the great idea in this regard has been to entrust my party's youth movements with the mission of taking charge of this matter. We asked the boys to watch over their young sisters and report to State Police or gendarmes any attempt of the kind, excision plans, early marriage plans (within 13 years old) most of the time money oriented. The young people assured us that they have successfully accomplished their mission but we have not yet drawn the conclusions out of this campaign to find out whether we finally won our bet or not.

Our constitution has established equal rights between man and woman, in the family, maternal power being set along with paternal power and in the work place where salaries are the same for equally qualified man and woman. I do not think there are in Africa many Constitutions that contain similar provisions.

According to our Constitution, the woman in rural area now has the right to land property, to have her own exploitation instead of working for her husband like the tradition always ruled it.

On the political front, I thought that the best way to promote women's condition was to appoint women to the highest positions in the nation. I did that. I had for two years a lady for Prime Minister and there are several women high-ranking positions in all areas in my Government and not only the department "Woman's Condition".

Women warmly congratulated me for the recently instituted Council of the Republic, which includes all of their trades, professors, business women, craftswoman, farmers and more.

I must add that this philosophy of equal sexes that I brought forward led me to propose to the African Union, an amendment that resulted in the absolute man/woman gender parity in what corresponds to the Government of the African Union (The Commission). This setting includes 5 men and 5 women; unless I am mistaken this is the only governmental institution that operates on the basis of an absolute parity between both sexes.

The Pan African women's Federation have decided to honor me by choosing Dakar as the location to establish their Headquarters.

Fighting for human rights is also fighting against bad treatments; tortures, mutilations and other abuses to the physical integrity of Mankind, humiliations, any violation of these banned practices will be severely punished by the law.

Now, I would like to get to the relations between Human Rights and Peace in a world of solidarity.

Human Rights and Peace

If human rights have been, despite the survival of sever violations, prohibited throughout centuries, the concept of people's human rights seems to me, to have been presented only in the African Charter of people's human rights.

The title of this charter was a compromise between the hard core liberals who wanted to limit themselves to human rights and those who thought that the people was above the individual, that the right of the people was more important than the rights of the individual.

Philosophically speaking, going form the individual freedom as an attribute of Mankind, one can get to the notion of People's right, the people being here a sum of individuals. But this vision of early liberalism of the end of the 18th century is by far obsolete.

Considering that genocide is a crime against people, ethnics, races, one already recognizes thereby people's rights.

But before going any further, let us go back to human rights, the rights of all men to peace.

Mankind is not perfect; furthermore he has lots of imperfections that are very often the source of social trouble. Envy, evilness, ambition, and violence provoke social disorders and are all inherent to human nature which constitutes the main sources of problems in conflict.

It does not always have a happy ending, but obviously a great number of conflicts are resolved that way.

I think that such conflicts can only be avoided by the culture taught in schools or inculcated to adults by modern means of information and education.

No matter what meaning is given to the word solidarity, the sense of solidarity should be developed in children, which does not equate with neither sharing nor altruism.

Citizens of the same nation structured in social classes, feel solidarity with one another, because they make one entity when facing big events.

The notion of solidarity within one same country is therefore very relative. We know that there are several acceptations of the notion of solidarity.

However, solidarity between people appears more and more like an international survival standard of human race, while respecting cultures. Each culture must have the courage of getting rid of backward ancestral practices, while sublimating its positive values. And, it is indeed these positive values that led to what Senghor in the dialogue of cultures, called the civilization of the universal. And this is what should be the base for a lasting peace.

An encouraging example of international solidarity is the digital solidarity, concept that I proposed to the International Community on the account of the NEPAD. The digital solidarity fund supported by Africa, Asia, Latin America and France, by the Cities of the World has been created and would be officially launched in Geneva the 17th of November this year, under the hospices of President Obasanjo, Chairman of the African Union, the Mayors and other guests Heads of States.

The history of humanity shows that wars have been disastrous and took a lot of human lives particularly when, at the end, the protagonists get reconciled. This in some sense, makes war even more absurd and leads us to the idea that we could have prevented it through dialogue.

That is the reason why, today in Africa, we are putting forward conflict prevention, which is unfortunately remains by en large a vacuum concept in so much as conflicts are multiplying in our continent which unfortunately ranks number one in terms of numbers of wars, followed by Asia and the Middle East.

As far as I am concerned, I have personally carried out several mediations between the opposition parties and the ruling parties even when I was in the position. Paradoxically, Heads of States, Head of ruling Parties are the one who call on me. It is because they appreciate my style of peaceful opposition, or because they wish to do the same in their own countries? Since I was myself an opponent, I was accepted right away by both parties considering that at the time of single parties, the opposition has no other means than having recourse to armed struggle.

The passage of opposition from armed struggle to national democratic opposition was difficult and is not yet completed.

I must say that none of the mediations I carried out failed. At most, it took time for the results to come out. The objectives of my mediation have always been to establish an interplay dialogue and to help the parties themselves to elaborate a solution. But I have always refrained from getting involved into setting up governments.

In only one case, I was informed on an imminent coup d'etat in Guinea Bissau, I informed my colleagues, President Kuffuor from Ghana, President Obasanjo from Nigeria. All three of us went immediately to Bissau to impose the withdrawal of the militaries and have them give up the ambition of being part of a government. A civilian government was thus put in place. Legislative elections just finished setting up a parliament and presidential elections are planned during the first quarter of 2005.

In some of the ongoing conflicts, like in Cote d'Ivoire, sizable progress has been made, big obstacles subsist, particularly the lack of mutual confidence among the antagonists. President Kuffuor, Chairman of ECOWAS, is committed to reestablishing the confidence.

I cannot say that all mediations have a positive outcome, in the difficult case of the Darfour, President Obasanjo, with the help of President Taboo Mbeki, President Debby and myself to some extent, made some important progress towards the achievement of peace.

A last meeting recently took place couple of days ago in Abuja, in Nigeria.

As you know the African conflict mechanism for the mediation operate more or less.

In cases these mediations fail, we will envisage armed intervention to reestablish peace.

In the case of Darfour, I wish that the United Nations Secretary General and the Security Council give the African Union more time so that the negotiations undertaken by president Obasanjo can lead to a solution. Otherwise, we will do what will be necessary.

Sending international non-African forces to Sudan would only complicate things for the time being, since the Sudanese government is against this approach.

The conscience of the international community, summing up all the human adventures, considers day that peace is a higher value and must be sought by individuals, States and nations.

Human rights and peace.

The universal respect of human rights undoubtedly creates social peace grounds in
nations and peaceful relations between countries, because very often, conflicts arise
from the non-respect of human rights, and the non-acceptation of democracy as a rule
of the game that could mediate between contenders. Considering that the respect of the right of all man leads to popular sovereignty which must be respected through the notion of willpower of the majority, pluralism of opinion, political pluralism, must be priority leads because there are no better ways to reconcile people than to have standards that find their fundament in their philosophy.

Nowadays new notions have been elaborated in favor of peace and one must give it more content: political mediation, dialogue, arbitration and beyond all of that peace keeping effort by the international community.

The international community has thus endowed itself with the means to prevent conflicts from their inception or create the conditions of dialogue that will lead to peace.

In extreme cases, it would use military means to impose peace to parties in conflict. That is the reason why we must reinforce international institutions which role is essentially to reestablish peace in the world.

Unfortunately, despite all these efforts, there are still some unpunished severe human rights violations, ethnical and political genocides.

Emmanuel Kant had already made a project of permanent peace. The two world wars, during which millions of humans perished, show the extent of the utopia.

Let's be frank with one another. The Security Council is, afterall, a political instance where political interests indispensable to international order mingle with economic
interests of States.

And we know that the world is made of very unequal States.

That the reason why I would like to make a proposition:

To put in place a High Observatory for International Human Rights and Peace including eminent personalities who are moral references in terms of human rights and fight for peace. This observatory would not have any decision making power, nor sanctions, but its role would be a moral institution, representing the ideal of humanity. As such, it will call the attention on unpunished crimes and genocides not prosecuted for political reasons.

That way, I think the awareness of the citizens of humanity, supported by international human rights organizations and NGOs could constitute a sufficient moral force to report to the International Court, crimes and genocides which, otherwise, will benefit from impunity.

For my part, a man's actions are the product of a matrix that explains their relations. This matrix is nothing more than the doctrine in as much as it is true that individuals from different doctrines do not treat the same questions in the same way because their intellectual reactions and ethics are different.

Thus the doctrine is what links up the man with the action. The doctrine itself has its fundament in a philosophy that some people can ideology, since it would be a matter of a higher reference system.

My philosophical conviction is that the individual is a true value in itself and that freedom is its attribute as seen by the revolutionaries of 1789.

In History, every one does not share this conviction, because every political system has established a relational system between power and individual, between groups and the individual, between the individual and his (her) peer.

Some people considered that the group was the primary consideration and that the individual should be subordinated to the group. This dangerous conception that was at the roots of all abuses should be dismissed.

In my opinion, as expressed by the authors that have inspired me over since like Adam Smith, the primary value is the individual, even if though its interests must not jeopardize those of the group, the community and the State. The quest for power must not prevail over individual freedom.

In our plans for peace we are considering the problem of religion and misconceptions around it. We must work so that the "clash between civilizations" has no content. This is possible because all religions preach for peace. Unfortunately wrong doers get a hold of religions to use them for political purposes. Islam is a religion of peace. When two people meet, the first word that is said is "peace be upon you". That is our prophet taught us whose tolerance is a model for us. He would welcome and accept for followers of other denominations to worship in his mosque.

Deviations that use religion do not belong to Islam. It is up to us to stand against the use of our religion for other purposes than the Holy Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohamed (s.a.w).

That is the reason why I proposed a World Summit on Islamo-Christian dialogue. I did not invent the notion, but I am attempting to raise it to the level of World decision-makers that have our faith in hand. This being so I have the blessings of the Pope the support of a number of Muslim leaders. For practical reasons the Summit previously planned for the end of 2005 will finally take place at the end of 2006.

It results out of these fundamental options of respect of Human rights with the internal social balance and the dynamic International equilibrium, that protecting and saving mankind in the national and International turmoil, that is the objective of the advocates of human rights, difficult task must face, habits, interests, inequities, but not impossible if all willing people go hand in hand.

Thank you for your attention.

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