UN General Assembly
1995

and enabled the governors and the governed to develop consensual solutions to face the challenges relating to the future of the nation and the development of the country. May I emphasize that democratic Mali has made it a point of honour to respect human rights and the rights of peoples. Thus a distinguished panel met on 10 December 1994, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, bringing together noted international jurists who, in a completely transparent context, held public hearings with the Government of Mali on its human rights management. This was a bold exercise which set a valuable example and enabled us to demonstrate that respect for human rights and the establishment of a State based on the rule of law have now become a reality in Mali. In Mali, as in many countries, history accelerated at a dizzying pace towards the end of the 1980s. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the end of the division of the world into two rival ideological and military blocs. This foreshadowed fundamental and