ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Gabon. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Gabon. President Omar Bongo's Gabonese Democratic Party overwhelmingly won the first and second round of parliamentary elections in December 2001. Gabon's citizens have never been able to exercise their constitutional right to change their government democratically, despite a gradual political opening since 1990. Gabon has come under international scrutiny for its exploitation of thousands of child labourers who are sent from other central or West African countries to work in agriculture or as domestic servants. Most of Gabon's several thousand indigenous Pygmies live in the forest and are largely independent of the formal government.
