President Léopold Senghor advocated close relations with France and negotiation and compromise as the best means of resolving international differences. To a large extent, the two succeeding Presidents have carried on Senghor's policies and philosophies. Senegal has long supported functional integration among French-speaking West African states through the West African Economic and Monetary Union. Senegal has a high profile in many international organizations and was a member of the UN Security Council in 1988-89. It was elected to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1997. Friendly to the West, especially to France and to the United States, Senegal also is a vigorous proponent of more assistance from developed countries to the Third World.
Senegal enjoys mostly cordial relations with its neighbors. In spite of clear progress on other fronts with Mauritania (border security, resource management, economic integration, etc.), there remains the problem of an estimated 30,000 Afro-Mauritanian refugees living in Senegal.
Senegal is a republic with a powerful presidency; the president is elected every seven years, amended in the 2001 to every five years, by universal adult suffrage.
Senegal also has 65 political parties which contribute to development of the country through working towards a successful transition to democracy in the country, and even among other developing countries on the African continent.
The Halpulaar, a widespread ethnic group found along the Sahel from Chad to Senegal, representing 20 percent of the senegalese population, were the first to be converted to Islam.
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