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Benin: Countries
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Benin is one of the 50 least developed countries in the world. But some progress has been made in reducing poverty, narrowing income inequalities, and expanding the supply of social services. Nevertheless, nearly half of Benin's population of 8.4 million are unable to meet their basic needs. Benin continues to fall short of the goals and targets set by the International Conference on Population and Development and the MDGs for lowering population growth, fertility levels, and maternal, infant and childhood mortality rates. The number of HIV orphans increased to 34,000 in 2003 (up from 22,000 in 1999). Gender inequalities persist in education, elected office, and access to sexual and reproductive health services.
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Much of the foreign investment that has entered Benin since 1990 has been through acquisition of interests in privatized companies. The principal foreign investors in Benin are from Lebanon, India, Germany, France and other European countries. Following are examples of companies sold in part to foreign investors, listed by name, activity, price and buyer:
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Benin, a narrow, north-south strip of land in West Africa, lies between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer. Benin's latitude ranges from 6o30N to 12o30N and its longitude from 10E to 3o40E. Benin is bounded by Togo to the west, Burkina Faso and Niger to the north, Nigeria to the east, and the Bight of Benin to the south. With an area of 112,622 square kilometers, roughly the size of Pennsylvania, Benin extends from the Niger River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south, a distance of 700 kilometers (about 500 mi.). Although the coastline measures 121 kilometers (about 80 mi.), the country measures about 325 kilometers (about 215 mi.) at its widest point. It is one of the smaller countries in West Africa: eight times smaller than Nigeria, its neighbor to the east.
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The Benin example serves to pose the question whether the existence of a human rights commission necessarily helps to bring improved human rights protection in a country. Generally, Benin's human rights situation has undergone significant improvements in the past decade, but without the CBDH appearing to make much of a contribution to this or taking an active role. On the contrary, the CBDH has been a generally passive player partly, it seems, because of a sense of complacency among its members that human rights are generally respected and that more concerted action on the part of the commission is unnecessary or would be inappropriate. Thus, in a 1997 editorial in the first issue of the CBDH's own magazine, Journal des Droits de l'Homme, its president wrote, "at the moment, one can without risk of error say that these rights are not threatened in Benin,"48 a sentiment which appears to be widely shared among lawyers, human rights activists and the foreign diplomatic community in Benin. One diplomat, for example, told Human Rights Watch that "human rights are part of the democratic culture in Benin,"49 while Maurice Glélé Ahanhanzo, member of the constitutional court, expressed the view that "there is in Benin an acute and permanent consciousness of human rights."50
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Located on the west coast of Africa, the Republic of Benin is bordered by Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and Niger. It has an area of 43,483 square miles, including a 75 mile coastline on the Gulf of Guinea. It is warm year-round with two rainy seasons from April to mid-July and mid-September to October. Benin is a beautiful country, with great beaches. The Beninese people are known throughout West Africa for their warmth and hospitality.
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Benin can be roughly divided into four geographic zones, from south to north. The coastal strip in the south is a flat sandbank with no natural harbors. Immediately north of the beach is a network of shallow lagoons and swamps. Farther north, the second region is a fertile lowland called the barre country. Valleys run north to south along the region’s rivers, and most of the land is intensively cultivated. The third region is a rocky plateau in northern Benin.
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