Preamble
Chad, proclaimed a republic on November 28, 1958, granted national and international sovereignty on August 11, 1960.
Since this date, it has experienced turbulent institutional and political development.
Years of dictatorship and of single-party rule prevented the flourishing of any democratic culture and political pluralism.
Different successive regimes created and maintained regionalism, tribalism, nepotism, social inequalities, violations of human rights and of fundamental collective and individual freedoms, of which the consequences were war, political violence, hatred, intolerance, and distrust between the different communities which compose the Chadian nation.
This institutional and political crisis that has destabilized Chad for more than four decades has only fueled the determination of the Chadian people to achieve the building of one nation, of dignity, of freedom, of peace and of prosperity.
Thus, the Sovereign National Conference, held at N’Djamena from January 15 to April 7 1993, at the initiative of the President of the Republic and having assembled the political parties, the civil society associations, the organs of the State, the traditional and religious authorities, the representatives of the rural world and the resources of leading figures, have restored confidence to the Chadian people and enabled the advent of a new era.
This new era was consecrated in the Constitution of March 31, 1996, and revised in 2005 and 2013.
After two decades of experimentation by institutions deriving from this Constitution, the Inclusive National Forum held at N’djamena of 19 to 27 March 2018 enabled the bringing of the reforms necessary for the reinforcement of democracy and of the State of Law.
The processes of the reforms validated by the People and consecrated by this constitutional law adopt the form of a State strongly decentralized and profoundly modernized the institutions of the State.
Consequently, We the Chadian People:
- Affirm by this Constitution our will to live together with respect for ethnic, religious, regional and cultural diversity, to build a State of law and one united Nation founded on public freedoms and the fundamental rights of Man, the dignity of the human person and political pluralism, on the African values of solidarity and fraternity;
Affirm our attachment to integrity, probity, transparence, impartiality and accountability as republican and ethical values appropriate to moralize the life of the Nation; Consider that political, ethnic and religious tolerance, pardons, interreligious dialogues and cultural dialogues constitute fundamental values contributing to the consolidation of our national unity and cohesion; Recognize the promotion of gender and youth as factors necessary to realize equality between men and women within our country and recognize the imperative of taking them into account for lasting human development; Reaffirm our commitment to the principles of the Rights of Man as defined by the Charter of the United Nations of 1945, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1948 and the African Charter of the Rights of Man and of Peoples of 1981; Solemnly proclaim our right and our duty to resist and disobey any individual or group of individuals, and any organs of the State that would take power by force or would exercise it in violation of this Constitution; Affirm our total opposition to any regime of which the policy would be founded on arbitrariness, dictatorship, injustice, corruption, extortion, nepotism, clanism, tribalism, denominationalism and the seizure of power; Affirm our determination to cooperate in peace and goodwill with all peoples sharing our ideals of freedom, of justice and of solidarity, based on the principles of equality, of mutual interests, of mutual respect and of national sovereignty, of territorial integrity and of non-interference; Proclaim our dedication to the cause of African unity and our commitment to carry out everything possible to achieve sub-regional and regional integration; Solemnly adopt this Constitution as supreme law of the State.
This preamble is an constitutive part of the Constitution.
