Bamako, Mali - The Kéba Mbaye Foundation has awarded the Kéba Mbaye Award for Ethics to the Malian President, Amadou Toumani Touré, for making his country an exemplary democracy, according to a communiqué from the Malian presidency on Tuesday. The communiqué indicated that the Kéba Mbaye Foundation observed that under the regime of Toure, Mali had become an exemplary democracy endowed with a respectable constitution. Among his personal initiatives, the foundation cited the re-establishment of the rule of law, the consolidation of the independence of the judiciary, the support for the birth of a free press and also the numerous actions in the humanitarian and mediation areas in making the award.

The first Kéba Mbaye Prize for Ethics will be handed to the winner by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade at a solemn ceremony.

The Senegalese, Kéba Mbaye, who died 11 January, 2007,  occupied high national and international positions, including the presidency of the Supreme Court of Senegal; the Constitutional Council and the International Olympic Committee (CIO).

Created in 2008, the foundation has as objectives, to perpetuate and honour the memory of the judge, to work for the promotion of a society resolutely orientated towards the search for peace and to consolidate and develop the work of his lifetime.

Pana 13/04/2011