PREAMBLE
Chad, proclaimed as a Republic on 28 November 1958, acceded to national and international sovereignty on 11 August 1960.
Years of dictatorship and single party rule have prevented the blossoming of any democratic culture and of multi-party politics.
The different regimes that succeeded one another created and maintained regionalism, tribalism, nepotism, social inequalities, violations of human rights and of fundamental individual and collective liberties, of which the consequences have been war, political violence, hatred, intolerance and suspicion between the different communities that make up the Chadian nation.
This institutional and political crisis which has been shaking Chad for more than three decades has not thwarted the determination of the Chadian people to attain the edification of a nation, dignity, freedom, peace and prosperity...
As a consequence, we the Chadian people:
Affirm by this Constitution, our will to live together in respect of ethnic, religious, regional and cultural diversity; to build a state of law and a united nation founded on public liberties and fundamental human rights, dignity of the human person, and political pluralism, on the African values of solidarity and brotherhood;
Reaffirm our commitment to the principles of human rights as defined by the Charter of the United Nations of 1945, by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of 1981;
Proclaim solemnly our right and duty to resist and to disobey any individual or group of individuals, any state body that would assume power by force or would exercise it in violation of the present Constitution;
Affirm our total opposition to any regime whose policy would be founded on arbitrariness, dictatorship, injustice, corruption, extortion, nepotism, emphasis of clan, tribe or religion, tribalism, confessionals, or confiscation of power;
Affirm our will to co-operate in peace and friendship with all peoples sharing our ideals of freedom, justice and solidarity, on the basis of the principles of equality, reciprocal interests, mutual respect, and of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference;
Proclaim our attachment to the cause of African unity and our commitment to work in every way toward the realisation of sub-regional and regional integration;
Adopt solemnly the present Constitution as the supreme law of the state.
This Preamble is an integral part of the Constitution.
Article 1Chad is a sovereign, independent, secular, social, and indivisible, Republic founded on the principles of democracy, the rule of law and justice. The separation between state and religion is affirmed.
Article 2Sovereignty belongs to the people who exercise it either directly by referendum, or indirectly through their elected representatives. No community, no corporation, no political party or association, no trade union, no individual, no group of individuals may arrogate its exercise. The conditions of recourse to a referendum are determined by this Constitution and by an organic law.
Article 3Political parties and groups agree on voting rights. They form freely and exercise their activities according to the conditions specified by law and respectful of the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national unity and multi-party democracy.
Article 4All propaganda of an ethnic, tribalism, regionalist or religious nature, tending to affect the national unity or the secularity of the state, is forbidden.
Article 5Suffrage is universal, direct or indirect, equal and secret. All Chadian of both sexes, aged eighteen years and older and enjoying their civil and political rights, are voters under the conditions determined by law.
Article 6The principle of the exercise of power is: “Government of the people, by the people and for the people”, founded on the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.
Article 7The official languages are French and Arabic. The law establishes the conditions of promotion and development of the national languages.
