A/RES/55/96 Noting that the fourth International Conference of New or Restored Democracies is scheduled to be held at Cotonou, Benin, from 4 to 6 December 2000, and also noting the initiative of the Government of Mali to host, at Bamako from 1 to 3 November 2000, following the Moncton Declaration adopted in September 1999 at Moncton, Canada, by the Eighth Summit of la Francophonie, 8 an international symposium at the ministerial level on the status of the practices of democracy, rights and freedoms in the French-speaking community, 1. Calls upon States to promote and consolidate democracy, inter alia, by: (a) Promoting pluralism, the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, maximizing the participation of individuals in decision-making and the development of effective public institutions, including an independent judiciary, accountable legislature and public service and an electoral system that ensures periodic, free and fair elections; (b) Promoting, protecting and respecting all human rights, including the right to development, and fundamental freedoms, in particular: (i) Freedom of thought, conscience, religion, belief, peaceful assembly and association, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, and free, independent and pluralistic media; (ii) The rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, including the right freely to express, preserve and develop their identity without any discrimination and in full equality before the law; (iii) The rights of indigenous people; (iv) The rights of children, the elderly and persons with physical or mental disabilities; (v) Actively promoting gender equality with the aim of achieving full equality between men and women; (vi) Taking appropriate measures to eradicate all forms of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; (vii) Considering becoming parties to international human rights instruments; (viii) Fulfilling their obligations under the international human rights instruments to which they are parties; (c) Strengthening the rule of law by: (i) Ensuring equality before the law and equal protection under the law; (ii) Ensuring the right to liberty and security of person, the right to equal access to justice, and the right to be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power in the case of detention with a view to avoiding arbitrary arrest; (iii) Guaranteeing the right to a fair trial; (iv) Ensuring due process of law and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law; 8 A/54/453, annex I. 3