UN General Assembly
1997

Today I have the honour and privilege of announcing that with the presidential election of 1996 and the legislative elections held at the beginning of this year, most of our republican and democratic institutions are in place. Projects are under way to hold local elections. All this is taking place in a climate of peace and national harmony. The ongoing quest for peace between Chadians, the necessary consolidation of the achievements of national unity and the willingness to involve everyone in public administration have compelled our President, Mr. Idriss Déby, to practise what we call consensual, participatory democracy. It follows that all political parties, including those of the opposition, are represented in all State structures. By the same token, a national mediator has recently been appointed. The fifty-second session of the General Assembly coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the proper place to reaffirm our loyalty to that instrument, which, despite its imperfections, is, in its own language, 14 “a common standard of achievement”. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, resolution 217 (III),