Abstract EN:

Benin's capacity to invent an endogeneous path to mark her contribution to the universal values came about during the national conference held between the 19th to the 28th february 1990. . . Having proven itself, the haste with which many african states adopted the Benin model speaks for itself. However, the intellectual elite did not distance themselves enough with the western conception of human rights, even though the desire was expressed to elaborate a democratic system well-grounded in African sources. The pagan conception of human rights is not integrated in its entirety in the African charter for human and people's rights nor is it included in the Benin constitution of the 11th of december 1990. . . The Benin society will become totally pacified when it succeeds in looking into its own model of behaviour and conduct, by achieving a sense of dignity based on solidarity at the community level (like for instance, the redistribution of resources), as an expression of the balance of power between people, groups and societies. . . The social institutions ignored by the constitutional commitee still inspire basic human right's values. The basic structures pertaining to the thinking of the afro-beninese man, his way of saying and of doing things is nevertheless very important. Confronted with the institutional logic coupled with the supremacy of the law, the Benin society "oppose" its customs and functional law.