ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Guinea-Bissau. 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 Guinea-Bissau. The people of Guinea-Bissau were able to choose their government freely for the first time in 1994, and both direct presidential polls and legislative elections were judged free and fan-by international observers. The vast majority of Guinea-Bissau's one million citizens survive on subsistence farming. Cashew nuts are a key export. There are hopes for substantial oil reserves offshore. Freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. Women face some legal and significant traditional and societal discrimination, despite constitutional protection.
