98. The Senegalese government is also engaged in a rationalization drive and a
quest for efficiency intended to improve the quality of public service. Though
several strategic and organizational audits have come up with measures, they
have still not culminated in significant reforms during the past decade which has
been marked by institutional instability and this has not been without effects on
the economic environment.
99. The decentralization policy is still confronted with a lot of difficulties. The
obstacles to the promotion of good governance in the 14 regions, subdivided
into 45 departments and 92 districts are institutional, organizational and financial
in nature. In fact, the difficulties consist of :
Inadequate operationalization of land–use planning in managing local
governments ;
Poor demarcation of local government areas and non-existence of local
cadastre;
Failure to use some mechanisms for planning such as contracts-plans as
established by law ;
Poor integration of space-related issues into public development policies
especially in the allocation of investment resources, centralization of the
economy which has not provided enough room for autonomy in terms of
regional and local initiatives.
CHAPTER 3
GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS
100. The promotion and protection of human rights are enshrined in the
Senegalese Constitution which expressly guarantees the exercise of civil and
political rights without any form of racial discrimination, of freedom of opinion,
freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association and
freedom of assembly.
101. This same Constitution clearly establishes the following rights and freedoms:
cultural, religious, philosophical, trade union rights, freedom of expression and
assembly, entrepreneurship, the right to education, reading and writing,
property rights, labour rights, right to health, the right to a decent environment,
and the right to plural information19.
19
See Title II of the Constitution entitled «Public freedoms and human rights in respect of economic, social and
collective rights ».
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