| Chapter 2: | Linguistic and Demographic Profile of Senegal |
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governance is defined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the ‘institutional capacity of the management of affairs of the state based mainly on the principles of transparency, participation, responsibility, equity, and the rule of law’ (United Nations Development Programme, 2001, p. 16; translation).
Much work remains to be done in Senegal on every standard of good governance—including improving human rights, increasing freedom of expression, reducing corruption, and promoting judiciary independence. Although the country has made considerable progress on human rights issues since independence, Senegal has recently experienced some serious setbacks that have considerably damaged its image as a country that respects and encourages freedom of expression. In the last few years, peaceful demonstrations have been systematically and brutally suppressed, journalists’ writings have been suppressed, and opposition political leaders have been beaten, arrested, and imprisoned. In the 2010 classification of freedom of press in the world by Reporters sans frontières (an international NGO campaigning for freedom of the press), Senegal was ranked 86th among the 173 countries listed. Despite such gross violations of the principles of freedom of expression, however, the media in Senegal remain well established and diversified, and people continue to exercise their right to express political opinions.
Senegal has also experienced serious problems related to corruption. According to Transparency International (2008), Senegal is among the countries where there has been ‘an increase in perceived corruption’ (p. 3). Several corruption cases at the highest level of the Senegalese government have involved high-profile officials such as senior magistrates and judges, senior civil servants at the Ministry for Finance (Customs Department), and a former prime minister (who was accused of détournement et atteinte à la sûreté de l’État[embezzlement and endangering the state security] but not convicted in a case involving the Chantiers de Thiès, a huge public infrastructure building project of roads and public places he undertook in his native city of Thiès, located 70 km from Dakar). The most scandalous case involved the Senegalese president Wade, who was found to have given money to the World Bank representative in Senegal,