CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN
Adopted at the referendum of 2 December 1990
PREAMBLE
We, the Beninese people,
Reaffirm our fundamental opposition to any political regime founded on arbitrariness, dictatorship,
injustice, corruption, misappropriation of public funds, regionalism, nepotism, confiscation of
power, and personal power;
Express our firm will to defend and safeguard our dignity in the eyes of the world and to find again
the place and role as pioneer of democracy and of the defence of human rights which were
formerly ours;
Solemnly affirm our determination by this present Constitution to create a state of law and
pluralistic democracy in which the fundamental human rights, public liberties, the dignity of the
human being, and justice shall be guaranteed, protected and promoted as the condition
necessary for the genuine harmonious development of each Beninese in his temporal and
cultural dimension as well as in his spiritual;
Reaffirm our attachment to the principles of democracy and human rights as they have been
defined by the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights of 1948, by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted in 1981 by the
Organization of African Unity and ratified by Benin on 20 January 1986 and whose provisions
make up an integral part of this present Constitution and of Beninese law and have a value
superior to the internal law;
Affirm our will to co-operate in peace and friendship with all peoples who share our ideals of
liberty, of justice, of human solidarity based on the principles of equality, of reciprocal interest and
of mutual respect for national sovereignty and for territorial integrity;
Proclaim our attachment to the cause of African unity and pledge ourselves to leave no stone
unturned in order to realise local and regional integration;
Solemnly adopt the present Constitution which shall be the Supreme Law of the state and to
which we swear loyalty, fidelity and respect.
TITLE I: THE STATE AND SOVEREIGNTY
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Article 2
The Republic of Benin shall be one - indivisible, secular, and democratic. Its principle shall be:
“Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
Article 3
National sovereignty shall belong to the people. No portion of the people, no community, no
corporation, no party or political association, no trade union organisation nor any individual shall
be able to abrogate the exercise of it. Sovereignty shall be exercised in accordance with the
present Constitution which is the Supreme Law of the state. Any law, any statutory text and any
administrative act contrary to these provisions shall be null and void. Consequently, any citizen
shall have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the laws, texts, and acts
presumed unconstitutional.
Article 4
The people shall exercise their sovereignty through their elected representatives by means of the
referendum.
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