Marie "Mame" Bassine Niang (1951 - September 27, 2013) was a Senegalese lawyer.
Born into a Muslim family in 1951 in Tambacounda, Senegal, Mame Bassin Niang studied law in France at the French commune of Aix-en-Provence. After her studies, she returned to Senegal to become the first black woman lawyer at the Dakar Bar in 1975. [1]
Her professional career focused on the defense of human rights in a context of restricted freedom of thought. Her commitment led her to create the Organisation Nationale des Droits de L’Homme du Sénégal (ONDH) (english: National Organization for Human Rights of Senegal), of which she was the first president. [2]
Considered as a feminist icon and concerned by the issue of women's emancipation, she was one of the founding members of the Association des Juristes Sénégalaises (AJS) (english: Association of Senegalese Jurists). She was at the point the Vice President of the Fondation internationale des femmes juriste (IFAD), (English: International Foundation of Women Lawyers). [3] She was High Commissioner for Human Rights under the presidency of Abdoulaye Wade. She died on September 27, 2013, in Dakar following a long illness at the age of 62. [4] [5]
Mame Madior Boye is a Senegalese politician who served as Prime Minister of Senegal from 2001 to 2002. She was the first woman to hold that position.
The Senegalese education system is based on its French equivalent. The state is responsible for the creation of an educational system that enables every citizen access to education. Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution adopted in January 2001 guarantee access to education for all children. However, due to limited resources and low demand for secular education in areas where Islamic education is more prevalent, the law is not fully enforced.
Nafissatou Niang Diallo was a Senegalese writer who wrote in French. After studying in Toulouse, France, she began writing. She was active in social services both as a midwife and as director of a maternal and child health centre, and describes in her writing both traditional and modern aspects of Senegalese society. Her autobiography De Tilène au Plateau, a Dakar childhood, published in 1975, was among the first works of literature to be published by a Senegalese woman, after which she published three novels before her early death at the age of 41.
Fatou Niang Siga (1932-2022) was a Senegalese author and schoolteacher. She was a Mouride Muslim and has made the hajj to Mecca twice. She was married and had twelve children. Her daughter Maïmouna Sourang Ndir served as Senegal's ambassador to France.
Salimata or Salamata Sawadogo Tapsoba is the former chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. She is also a magistrate, and, the Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Cape Verde and Gambia. She is also a member of the Jurist Women's Association of Burkina Faso.
Rama Yade is a Senegalese-born French politician and author who has been director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center since 2021.
Trade unionism is a powerful force in the politics, economy, and culture of Senegal, and was one of the earliest trades union movements to form in Francophone West Africa.
United to Boost Senegal is a Senegalese political coalition. It was active in the 22 March 2009 Municipal elections in that country. The coalition was made up of members of parties opposed to President Abdoulaye Wade's ruling Senegalese Democratic Party and its Sopi Coalition. Coalition partners included the Socialist Party of Senegal, Alliance of the Forces of Progress, Front for Socialism and Democracy/Benno Jubël, and Reform Movement for Social Development. Prominent BSS members include Khalifa Sall, Biram Sassoum Sy, Doudou Issa Niasse, and Haoua Dia Thiam. The party's colours are Green and Yellow.
Women in Senegal have a traditional social status as shaped by local custom and religion. According to 2005 survey, the female genital mutilation prevalence rate stands at 28% of all women in Senegal aged between 15 and 49.
Angèle Diabang Brener is a Senegalese screenwriter, director and film producer.
Sidiki Kaba, is a Senegalese politician currently serving in the fourth Sall government.
Bineta Diop is a Senegalese women's rights activist. She is the founder of Femmes Africa Solidarité, a non-profit organization which promotes women's rights in Africa.
Ntyam Ondo Suzanne Mengue Zomo is a Cameroonian jurist who was elected to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights for a six-year term in 2016.
Fatou Kiné Camara is a Senegalese lawyer and women's rights campaigner. The daughter of a magistrate and government minister, Camara has a doctorate in law and works as a lecturer and researcher. She has supported campaigns for reform in many areas of the law and is particularly involved in attempting to increase the availability of abortions and free legal advice.
Harimia Ahmed is a Comorian lawyer. The first female lawyer in the country, she has served as Minister of Justice and president of the bar council. Ahmed acted as defense counsel for high-profile clients in the islands' courts.
Human rights in Senegal are generally better respected than in other countries in the continent, but cases of violation are still regularly reported.
Mame Seck Mbacké was a Senegalese writer. She wrote in French and in Wolof.
Codou Bop is a Senegalese sociologist, journalist and women's rights activist who also engages against gender violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Elisabeth Dior Fall Sow is a Senegalese jurist and legal scholar. She was the first female prosecutor in Senegal, appointed to the Republic at the Court of First Instance of Saint-Louis in 1976. She is honorary president of the Association of Women Jurists.
Aminata Diaw Cissé was a Senegalese lecturer and political philosopher who taught at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD). Influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and her academia background, she wrote about citizenship, civil society, democracy, development, ethnicity, gender, globalisation, human rights, identity, nationality and the state in an African and Senegalese context by using a political insight. Diaw worked for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Bellagio Study and Conference Center of the Rockfeller Foundation, National UNESCO Sub-Commission on Social Sciences and Humanities, West African Research Association, the National UNESCO Sub-Commission on Social Sciences and Humanities and the Philosophical and Epistemological Research Center of the Doctoral School Studies.