Ensure the implementation of decisions arrived at by the Courts and
quasi-international judicial institutions in respect of Senegal’s obligations
under human rights treaties to which the State is a party79.
240. In principle, every year, the President of the Committee symbolically
presents on 10 December, an annual report to the President of the Republic on
the human rights situation in Senegal and the activities carried out by the
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CSDH . But since the reform of the CSDH in 1997, only 5 reports have been
presented to the President of the Republic, the reason being that since 2000,
with the advent of President Abdoulaye Wade, the new Senegalese authorities
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created a High Commission for Human Rights and Promotion of Peace whose
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mandate and modalities for intervention ended up by creating utter
confusion within this State institution as to the actual role and place of the
CSDH in the new human rights promotion and protection architecture
established by the new government.
241. This situation has a negative effect on the CSDH, thus leading to the SubCommittee on Accreditation of the International Committee on Coordination of
National Human Rights Institutions for Human Rights Promotion and Protection
(CIC) of the High Commission for Human Rights (HCDH) to recommend to the
CIC Office to downgrade its status from A to B as a result of:
The obvious lack of financial, material and human support on the part of
the Government of Senegal ;
The absence of a transparent and pluralistic process in the appointment
of its members ;
The appointment of part-time members to the institution ;
The inability of the CSDH to appoint its own staff.
242. With the advent of President Macky Sall, the CSDH seems to have
rediscovered its status as the principal State institution for promoting and
protecting human rights: a new President has been appointed and the
Government has made a firm commitment to provide the institution with
sufficient budgetary resources and staff to enable it to fulfill its mandate
independently and impartially.
IV. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
(Article 9):
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Cf. Paragraph 2 of Article 3 of Law 97-04 of 10 March 1997 on the Senegalese Human Rights Committee
Cf. Article 8 of Law 97-04 of 10 March 1997 on the Senegalese Human Rights Committee
Cf. Presidential Order No 005691 of 6 July 2004
See Articles 3 to 10 of the Presidential Order No 005691 of 6 July 2004.
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According to Article 2 of the aforementioned Order, the High Commission, with the exception of the Secretariat of
the High Commission, is composed of a Human Rights Desk and an International Humanitarian Law Monitoring,
Documentation and Human Rights Promotion Unit, each with a special mandate overlapping that of the CSDH.
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